The excitement of incredible live music.

The excitement of live music.

On Tuesday 1st May ten young musicians on our project attended the Friendship Matinee at The Royal Albert Hall, given by The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and Capital Voices. Having made a very early booking, we had the most fantastic seats, right at the side of the stage and had views across the whole orchestra.

The performance was entitled symphonic ROCK and presented a number of rock and pop tunes arranged for full orchestra and 8 voices. These included tunes from Led Zeppelin and The Kinks to Adelle and Take That. Like anybody, our musicians were enthralled by the majesty of the building and captivated by the performance and light show. They had an adventure in travelling on public transport and taking charge of their own travel cards helped to develop their independence. We perhaps made an error in alighting at Green Park as this left us with a two mile yomp to the venue. However, they are made of stern stuff and all managed the trek. No one was left behind. We did brave the stairs at South Kensington for the journey home though!

Our young musicians experienced the thrill of a full orchestra playing tunes which they knew, to an  excellent standard, at an impressive volume and with a huge range of instruments to take in. The request “When can we go again?” came from many.

In our next group sessions we discussed the trip and the show in some detail and there was enormous enthusiasm and great feedback. We discussed the role of the conductor and how each musician has to follow their guide and the importance of listening to what else is being played other than what they are doing themselves. We then played along to some of the tunes we had heard, with a particular emphasis on concentrating on playing our individual parts well while being part of an ensemble piece.   

This was an excellent excursion with so many benefits to our students both in terms of musical enjoyment and development as well as developing social skills and independence. The group supported each other wonderfully, with the more abled always willing to help others where possible throughout the trip.

Worthy of particular praise are the staff at The Royal Albert Hall who could not do enough to welcome and support us, show us to our seats and look after our wheelchairs until the performance end. Exemplary effort by all concerned and in particular one young man whose name I did not get but I am sure is well valued by the venue.

I would recommend this event to anybody for so many reasons. Not least of which being that tickets were a mere £5.

Check out the film of our trip made by Nick Robinson our drum and percussion tutor and media whizz.