Friars Inclusive Ensemble forges ahead!

This is a bit of a follow up to a previous post on our Inclusive Ensemble at Friar's Special Academy in Wellingborough that we've been working with over the past couple of years or so. 

At the end of 2017, a last-minute opportunity came up for us to get involved in a MEHEM (the consortium of Music Education Hubs operating in the East Midlands) project celebrating the work of The Beatles across the region. The project was of particular interest to the Friar's students as they'd run their own arts festival in Summer 2017 based around the Sergeant Pepper album!

One part of the project was a performance at the Deco Theatre in Northampton on Saturday 3rd February. But we had a problem! Louise Dorrian, Head of Music at Friar's, reckoned it was going to be very difficult to get parents/carers to bring their children to the Deco on a Saturday... especially at relatively short notice. 

So, we decided that video was the solution..... so we mobilised our Musical Inclusion Team... got them across to Friar's for a couple of rehearsals.... contracted a filmmaker (Gemma Kendall).... and shot a video for screening at the Saturday performance. Give the tight timescale, it's a testament to the professionalism of the young people that they managed to get the song together in short time!

PS: Whilst this no doubt warrants a post of its own.... some of the Friars students were involved in a performance of Benjamin Till's Nene at the Music For Youth Proms at the Albert Hall back in November last year. You can see some of them right at the start of the video HERE on Youtube.