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Orchestra attracts younger audience
Posted: 1st April 2019Young musicians are being introduced to opportunities within their home town.
A group of 40 GCSE music students from Burnt Mill Academy attended a performance by Harlow Symphony Orchestra at St John’s Arts.
Cristin Casey, curriculum director of performing arts for the BMAT group of schools, plays with the orchestra and is keen for her students to explore musical opportunities within their community.
She said: “This is a good opportunity for our students to attend a free performance and to see an orchestra perform live. It is important to show our students what is going on in their local community.
“We all have passions outside of school and seeing what we do gives them inspiration to follow their own ambitions. It also helped them to work on their own performance skills, demonstrating the outcomes of the motivation and dedication it takes to become a virtuoso on their chosen instrument.
“Students are able to develop their musical understanding, including identifying musical instruments they may never have seen before and applying learning for lessons, including how instruments work together in a concerto.
“The students enjoyed the performance and had their eyes opened to the etiquette of a formal orchestra concert. I was surprised by the number of performers of the orchestra, including musicians, who regularly gig in London who approached me after the performance to say how nice it was to have so many young people in the audience.
“At Burnt Mill, we strive to provide young people with new opportunities. I hope that this is just the start of their orchestral musical journeys.”