The Workshops

So, on Monday the 3rd December, Bobby and I will go to Co. Wicklow to do a series of workshops in five local schools. Our schedule is filling up all the time - on Monday we are going to an exhibition in the Wicklow County Buildings, then onto the Bray Arts Evening (where we will talk about the project), then, after that we will go to the Greystones Orchestra rehearsal. During the course of the week we will visit the Mermaid Arts Centre in Bray (where the premiere performance will take place), meet with local musicians and writers, go to a historical society meeting in Greystones, and hopefully have time for some sightseeing (and the odd pint...)

It's all very exciting...do come back in a week or so's time, as there will be lots of photos up here of our week...

The first stage of the project gets underway...

Hello again, after a rather long sabatical from this blog....

Since getting back from from the interview in May, I've mostly been working on other compositions. The last few weeks however have been spent planning the workshops, which will take place in five schools in County Wicklow.

So far, this project has been a major learning curve for me. I will be paid (in three instalments) the entire budget of the project, and then I have to pay everyone/budget for everything/buy everything with that money. Thankfully my budget has stood up so far: I've even managed to undercut some of the estimated costs by a few pounds (by booking up the flights, car parking and car rental really early!). This was the easy part however - last week I spent five hours on the phone to insurance companies, trying to get Employer Liability Insurance. They all found it very hard to get their heads around what I was actually doing, and I was asked a load of totally silly questions several times: has anyone in my company been made redundant in the last 12 months (which would mean I'd have to sack myself!), has your company been involved in a merger in the last 12 months, and various other questions that are perfectly applicable to builders merchants and such, but not really to composers!

After I'd managed to sort out getting Bobby and I to Ireland, and making sure we were insured (I'm now petrified at the thought of where I shall put my bag when I get into the classrooms, in case a myriad of school children run past and trip over it) I had to work out what we were actually going to do in the workshops! So, the next stage was to get on the phone to each school, and find out a) how many students would be in each workshop, b) what their age range would be, c) whether they would have instruments or not, etc, etc! The various answers that I got helped me plan what I was to do next...