Educational project at Little Kingshill Combined School, Great Missenden.
Counterpoise is committed to educational and participatory activities in the community that provide opportunities for all young people to experience the transformative joy of music.
Our activities include projects in schools, universities and community centres. Past projects have taken place in schools in London and in Cambridgeshire in partnership with the local music hub, as well as in Southampton, Cardiff and Bristol and at Sussex and St Andrews Universities.
To complement our work presenting new commissions our participation projects tend to focus on young composers, stimulating their creativity through our cross-genre specialism with music, text, video and silent film. Working with the prizewinning young composer Russell Hepplewhite as animateur, we have developed workshops that are tailor-made to support cross-curricular activities in schools. We deliver high-quality, keenly focused work for maximum impact and are always evolving our learning strategies to reflect best practice.
We aim to harness the power of music to inspire young people, to broaden their horizons and instil confidence, with the emphasis on participation, creativity and interaction with highly skilled practitioners.
We are currently fundraising to expand our work in geographically isolated or socio-economically deprived areas in order to reach those currently not able to share the life-enhancing experience of music.
Feedback from participants:
'We were working with professionals that knew what they were doing. And they helped us a lot. They also helped us understand the language of music.'
'The workshop has given us greater confidence in composing and being in charge and making music and we have learned to do it better.'
'Stimulating and exciting. Having professional musicians to our disposal [sic] was really cool.'
'Composing AND performing our own piece: it was a really good experience.'
(students, Manor School, Cambridge)
'We were all part of it, everyone has a big part, no-one has a small part...'
(student, Year 5, Little Kingshill Combined School, Great Missenden)
