Our first day of workshops, 4th December 2007

On tuesday morning we had a mercifully leisurely start (something we would not have for the rest of the week!). We had a huge breakfast at our fantastic B&B and set off for St. Philomena's School in Bray. I was very nervous about the whole thing, having never really done a school workshop before, certainly not for thirty pupils! However, it was soon apparent that we were going to have a fantastic time. All the pupils at the school were absolutely wonderful, and I was so grateful for everybody's enthusiasm and willingness to participate (I know when I was eleven someone would have had to have forced any comment or opinion out of me!)

The workshops had several aims: to get the children's ideas as to what should inspire the piano concerto, and to get everybody creating musical compositions of their own (through group improvisation). To begin, Bobby and I each gave our own little performances, me via a few minutes of my recorded CD, and Bobby captivated everybody with his performance of some Liszt. Then we got divided into two groups, and got everybody talking about what they liked best about their town. Many children sited the beach as one of their favourite places, so in my group we decided to do a piece all about Bray beach.

First of all we set out about thinking about how to represent Bray beach in the different weathers: what could you use to portray the calm sea and the sunlight etc (we decided to use recorders playing major chords and twinkly percussion instruments to represent the sea and the light reflecting upon it), and how would you musically represent a storm (lots of percussion was used, as well as glissandi up and down the piano!).

Half way through the workshop Bobby and I changed places, so we could both work with each group. Bobby's group was already well rehearsed, with their piece called "Freedom Alex". Not exactly based on Bray's scenery, but the piece was based on "light" and "dark" music, and used lots of lovely recorder sounds and melodies.

When we got everybody back together in the main hall, in order for each group to perform their pieces to each other. As the consumate performer, Bobby had managed to put the piece about Bray beach together wonderfully. The piece started with a representation of Bray beach in calm weather, then a storm came over as night fell, and their was an alien landing!!! (my flexitone leant itself to this bit perfectly). Everyone really joined in, and at the end of the performance looked suprised at how well they had done (the two piano players especially excelled themselves, playing notes over the entire range of the piano!)

After all the time planning the workshops, and worrying whether it would all work, it was fantastic to have spent 90 minutes with everybody and to have produced two great performances, and having so much fun on top of everything we learnt!