Salford Music & Performing Arts Service (MAPAS)Quarter 4 January - March 2015

salfordcommunityleisure.co.uk/culture

Introduction

The MAPAS Arts Centre

The service has continued to deliver across schools in Salford and through the weekly Arts Centre held at Moorside High School on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday evenings. The service is a strategic partner in the Greater Manchester Music Hub and as such is responsible for delivering the National Plan for Music Education. The core roles in the plan are: First Access Singing Ensembles and other activities beyond the classroom Pupil progression and continued professional development This report outlines the development in these core areas as well as other activities that are made available for communities. Quarter 4 (January - March) has been a very successful quarter, some key highlights include: MAPAS Arts Centre open day Inaugural Salford choral festival Singing Squad at Music for Youth

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First Access

Wider Opportunities

Mapas hosted their first Wider Opportunities Open Day on Saturday the 24th January. This was a chance for children who have been taking part in Wider Opportunities to visit the Mapas Arts Centre and have fun making music together. The children had a great day, even the parents had a go playing ‘Uptown Funk’ on the Bamboo Tamboo. The day concluded with a concert showcasing all the children’s work through the day and the audience had lots of fun listening to the finale ‘Happy’. The day was a great success and as a result lots of children have joined the beginner arts centre groups. Wider Opportunities continues to grow in Salford with a new Ukulele project at St Joseph the Worker Primary School. This project started in January and it is hoped the children are having lots of fun learning their instrument and the team are looking forward to hearing the children perform in future concerts. Preparations are now underway for the big finale to the Wider Opportunities year at The Lowry. This event was so popular last year that there will be 5 nights of concerts in June with two concerts per night. The concerts will link to the BBC 10 Pieces with children performing a mass band arrangement of ‘A Fifth of Beethoven’. The event is now fully booked and the team are looking forward to seeing over 1000 Salford children perform on stage at The Lowry. The Greater Manchester Music Hub -

Wider Opportunities Forum

The Wider Opportunities Forum met on Wednesday 7th January. The team discussed the Come and Play with the Halle event. Steve Pickett, Halle’s Education Director discussed the repertoire that will be included in the concert and how it will link to the BBC 10 Pieces. This year’s theme will be space and children will be performing Mars, one of the BBC 10 Pieces. MAPAS will be sharing this event with their Hub partner Bury Music

Service and the performance will take place on Tuesday 4th July. Singing

On Friday evening 6th March the first ever MAPAS choral festival took place at Moorside High School. Fourteen singers and choirs from across the city gathered together, before a packed audience, to showcase their work. Junior school choirs, solo singers and a sixth form chamber choir were just some of the highlights of the evening. Highly respected and experienced adjudicator, Imelda Shirley, listened intently to each performance and performers waited patiently as she offered feedback to each of them regarding the quality of their work and ways that they can move things forward. Certificates and trophies were awarded for excellence and a small number of performers were offered a chance to appear in the celebration concert at The Lowry later in the year. The event was a great success, and the team look forward to next year when groups return to see if they can hold on to those trophies! After 6 weeks of hard work and rehearsal, Salford Music and Performing Arts Service (MAPAS) were fortunate enough to host the Greater Manchester Singing Challenge. On 20th March, children from Salford schools Mossfield Primary, St Gilbert’s RC Primary and St Mary’s RC Primary, Dukinfield gathered together for a final rehearsal of the newly commissioned piece ‘The Timeline Detective. The world premiere was performed at 2pm via a live webinar from Swinton High school and schools from across Greater Manchester logged in to be united in song. Many parents also tuned in via smartphones and computers for what proved to be a very exciting event. The team look forward to next years challenge.

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Salford Singing squad have had a busy few months preparing songs to take part in a Saturday singing day with friends from Wigan and Stockport. Sixty children gathered at Peel Hall, Salford, with several choir leaders and spent the day rehearsing and preparing for a performance to parents and supporters. This was a fun way to get to meet neighbouring choirs and was enjoyed by everyone involved. Alongside this event the children have also been preparing their own songs for performance in the national Festival Music for Youth. Performing in Rochdale’s beautiful Town Hall before adjudicators and supporters, the choir gave an excellent performance and received well-deserved praise, described as being “a very talented group of singers.” The team look forward to hearing whether the children get through to the next stage of the festival, with an invitation to perform in Birmingham.

Ensembles and other activities

beyond the classroom

Arts Centre

The Arts Centre kicked the year off to a positive start, as the Wider Opportunities open day led to a boost in numbers for all beginner ensembles. Beginner Strings, Centre Wind Band and Suzuki Strings all saw increased numbers throughout the spring term following the successful open day, and MAPAS re-launched their beginner brass group ‘Parpers and Tooters’ with a small number of enthusiastic and dedicated members. Weekly rehearsals continued and all young musicians worked hard throughout the spring term. The dedication of the senior Arts Centre musicians was showcased spectacularly in the end of term concerts. The MAPAS Big Band performed at Ordsall Hall alongside the Youth Choir on 3rd March in an evening of jazz music. The concert was thoroughly enjoyed and one attendee contacted the team afterwards to praise the musicians, saying: “Please would you pass on huge thanks to everyone from my wife and I, we really enjoyed the concert! We loved every piece that the band and singers performed”

The Big Band then went on to participate in the Rochdale Youth Festival of Performing Arts, receiving excellent feedback from the judges, and were delighted to be awarded ‘Honours’. The MAPAS Concert Band took part in a wind band day alongside Manchester Wind Orchestra (MWO) on Sunday 23rd March. The

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young musicians played alongside the more experienced adults and tackled some complex music. The hard work that went into the rehearsals really shone in their performance the following evening, when proud parents and members of the community travelled to Eccles Town Hall to watch the joint concert, which included works by Peter Graham, Edward Gregson and Dan Price. Finally, the senior concert series was rounded off by Concert Strings and Youth Orchestra who performed at Moorside High School on Monday 30th March. The concert highlighted the high quality of music that the young people are producing, with a special performance by five key members of the Concert Strings who performed Vivaldi’s Concerto for four violins and cello in B minor. Other pieces performed that evening included works by Purcell and Mozart.

All of these concerts showcased the talent that the senior ensembles possess and they were a real credit to themselves and their tutors.

Pupil progression and continued

professional development

Soloist Concert MAPAS hosted another of its soloist concerts on 27thJanuary at Eccles Library. The concert provided MAPAS tutors with the opportunity to nominate pupils who had been working particularly hard, or who had achieved something outstanding, to perform in a real performance setting. Many of those who took part had successfully passed an instrument

exam at Christmas. The pupils performed in the middle of the library to an audience made up of family and friends, as well as members of the general public who had come to use the library. There were a range of ages participating, from 9 to 18, and a variety of instruments were played; saxophone, keyboard, violin and more! The performers included two pupils who had recently completed their instrument grades by taking their Grade 8 exams at Christmas. Seeing them perform was a real inspiration to the other, younger performers. The next soloist concert is currently being planned. This will be taking place at Eccles Library again on 5th May to give another group of pupils the opportunity to experience what it is like to be a real performing musician.

Exams

An examination session was run in December for the nationally recognized Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music. Results were announced in January and pupils achieved some outstanding marks. An amazing 17% of pupils achieved a distinction (the highest level awarded), and 50% of pupils achieved a merit (the second highest level). The remaining 33% all passed. The next exam session will take place in late April and MAPAS is hoping for another fantastic collection of results. Wind Orchestra Project

Members of the MAPAS Concert Band (the most senior of the wind bands) took part in an afternoon of joint rehearsals and an evening concert with Manchester Wind Orchestra, an adult amateur group, in late March. Both ensembles had prepared two of the same pieces, which they performed as a large massed band, as well as short programme of their own. The concert took place at ECHO in Eccles and was a very enjoyable evening of music, most of which had been written by graduates from Salford University.

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Inclusive Activities

Salford Community Leisure’s services and activities are influenced by the demographic profile of local communities. SCL strive to provide inclusive services and activities to enable everyone to be active in their chosen leisure pursuit. All MAPAS activities are inclusive and can be adapted to suit those with special or additional needs.

Forthcoming Events / Activities in Quarter 1 2015-16

Soloist concert on 5th May at Eccles Library Salford Big Sing on 18th June at The Lighthouse Greater Manchester Music Hub celebration concert on 21st June at Bridgewater Hall MAPAS Wider Opportunity showcase 22nd – 26th June

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