"It's Our Music." said the RPO fusion ensemble in Corby
RPO resound opened the Corby Youth Music festival last Saturday night, with a distinctive youth fusion ensemble performing their own music...
The RPO were so pleased to be invited back to once again collaborate and compose with a unique blend of young instrumentalists from Corby, hosted by The Core at Corby Cube. We held a one day 'Refresher' project with the It's Our Music group - a model we haven't trialled much previously - and to our great satisfaction pulled together a high impact 15 minute cross-genre performance which revisited and refreshed compositions the group created way back in July 2011.
Our main concern was the young participants forgetting everything - firstly because the group was newly formed in July 2011 for the It's Our Music project, and secondly because they haven't played together since then - so 6 months later revisiting the music could have been a struggle. However, all the young people had notably progressed in their musical skills since our last project (many of them commenting that the project had given them the confidence to try new things, and increased performance skills - which made us feel proud!), and they all remembered the music to a polished standard within the first hour of our refresher workshop day. This left the RPO team (workshop leader and clarinettist Jane Calderbank, plus RPO percussion and violin support, and spoken word artist and MC Sam Acquaah) to really focus on performance technique, and encouraging participants to extend and fully arrange the music and grooves to showcase both their original work, but also their hugely increased musicality and confidence when it came to performing!
We didn't capture a film snapshot this time, but you can hear one of the great tracks written by participants during the first round of the project here: www.rpo.co.uk/rpo_in_action.php
The project was conceived, funded and deliver in conjunction with Corby Borough Council, Orchestras Live and The Core, and we all really hope to find new ways to work with this group of mixed instrumentalists again, as they are really beginning to bond socially and musically, and are carving their own It's Our Music musical niche.