Composer for musical theatre leads workshop

This summer, a collaboration between Abingdon Music Centre and Abingdon Early Interventions Hub was thrilled to invite composer Matt Winkworth to lead a workshop about writing for musical theatre and working within the arts. The workshop was attended by young people who access The Hub who are working towards a silver arts award.

The workshop was part of a series of sessions run by musician and tutor Glyn Rowlands who works for Abingdon Music Centre. Two of the young people who attended the workshop are particularly interested in musical composition, film music and career opportunities within the arts. The project itself has the aim of engaging with difficult to reach groups of young people in the Abingdon area using music to give young people positive developments in communication, self-esteem, and engagement in an accredited course.

Matt began the workshop by introducing himself and he explained how his career had developed from playing in bands and voluntary work to having his first lucky break into writing for musical theatre and how he later received awards for his compositions.

Matt went on to lead a discussion about the differences between regular songwriting and writing for musical theatre which gave young people the opportunity to participate in the session. They were more than happy to get involved which led to some interesting discussions and questions.

Matt followed this by playing some music he had written for a recent production. He played the song in its original form and explained how the music had changed and the reasons for the changes. He finally played the song in its final form which showed that the music had changed quite a lot. The original was a standard song in 4/4 time and ended up as a rap song in 7/8 time!

Some of the young people who attended the session had prepared some questions for Matt, and the end of the workshop was used as a question and answer session.

Matt Winkworth said after the session:

The young people responded really positively to the workshop - they were engaged throughout, I was surprised that they had lots of relevant questions both about my creative process and about the more logistical side of the freelance lifestyle.  I hope it gave them a glimpse into the realities of working in the arts and encouraged them to continue their own creative journeys.

One participant explained:

The workshop was really useful because it made me realise that even if you write for musicals and win awards it doesn’t mean that you always make enough money to live on. Matt explained to us that he still has to do lots of other work too, to make a living.

Glyn Rowlands said:

The workshop was both inspiring and fully reflective of the realities of working within the arts. The members of The Hub enjoyed Matt’s relaxed style too and felt able to ask questions and join in conversations about music.