by Author ArtsTrain

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The SubUrban Orchestra - 'Give young people from different musical backgrounds the chance to work together in an ensemble'

ArtsTrain is working in partnership with Bexley Music Hub to create a multi-instrumental, cross-genre improvising and composing ensemble for young people aged 13-19 in the Bexley borough.

The programme started in January 2013 with a 12 week pilot creative music-making programme in 3 schools and 1 youth centre in the borough. 

The Sub Urban Orchestra aims to:

  • Give young instrumentalists and vocalists new opportunities in composition and improvisation
  • Provide trainee animateurs/music leaders with an exciting music leadership opportunity
  • Provide public performance opportunities for young people (at least 6 over the 2 year period)
  • Offer a model of good practice in inclusive music education and creativity

SUB URBAN ORCHESTRA BLOG - Written By Lizzie Ogle (ArtsTrain Lead Tutor)

The participants arrive at Bird College on day 1 looking a bit nervous and awkward. They have come together from different schools across Bexley to be part of the Sub-Urban Orchestra, an ambitious project that gives young musicians an opportunity to write and perform their own music together, with the guidance of award-winning clarinettist and composer Arun Ghosh.  It’s the first day of a 3-day intensive course, creating original music with a range of musical talents and instruments (brass, woodwind, percussion, vocals, strings, guitars, electronics...) and no-one really knows what to expect, myself included.  But Arun launches straight into the music, making just one request of the participants, which is that they are ‘open’ to the creative process.  So it’s impressive, but not surprising when we get to the lunch-break on the first day and realise that we’ve made a strong start on three original orchestral compositions.

The participants seem a little stunned by their own creative capabilities – they are trying out new ways of making music as well as having a go on different instruments. One participant, Pascal, has gone from saying that she ‘doesn’t really play anything’, to trying out her skills on the xylophone and various other percussion instruments, and composing some great melodies that are key to one of the group compositions.  Another highlights of the day is a participant (Simon) - whose main instrument is the French horn - picking up a bass guitar and playing a metal riff that he’d learnt.  Arun hears him play it and challenges him to create his own riff on the bass.  The initial response from Simon was ‘I’m not a bass player, I spent ages learning how to play that riff.’  Arun persisted with him and met some resistance, as Simon understandably felt like he was being put on the spot.  However, under some more gentle pressure from Arun to “just exchange the notes that you’re already playing for some other notes” a beautiful, melancholic baseline emerges that forms the inspiration for an entire collective composition, complete with vocals, brass, strings and percussion. 

And this seems to be the theme emerging for the rest of the project – with persistence, openness and a willingness to step outside of comfort zones, creativity shines and new, interesting music emerges.  When Arun picks up his clarinet and improvises, participants are visibly gobsmacked, and this acts as true inspiration for the young people to develop their improvisation skills and become braver, musically.  By the end of 3 days, the group has created three original instrumental pieces and one song, backed by orchestral instrumentation.  What was a disparate group of young people nervously clutching their instruments, has become a functioning, creative orchestra, looking forward to showcasing their original music at the Royal Festival Hall in the summer.  Result!

Participants’ thoughts

“The project is so cool! It’s amazing.  It’s different to anything I’ve ever done before because it feels really professional, like we’re really making music.  I feel like we’re really learning and progressing, because everyone’s really good at music.” 

Abigail

“Singing and being backed by an orchestra feels really real and raw, it doesn’t sound processed.”

Valerie

“Working with Arun is quite inspiring because of the way he plays.  The project is really good because it’s different to anything we’ve done before, because we don’t have the music in front of us, we’re creating the music.”

Luke

“We’ve been developing our improvisation skills [which is] a bit scary because it’s really awkward when something comes out wrong, and everyone knows it’s wrong”

“Yeah but then if you play it some more it starts to sound more right.  Even if you make mistakes they can still sound good”

Simon and Luke

“You feel freer without the music in front of you, and the fact that we’ve created the music is really cool.”

Luke

“It’s been really good because I’ve had the opportunity to play different instruments.  It’s different to anything else I’ve done because we’re making new music.”

Lucy and Alice

“[The project is] better than I expected, because I thought we were just going to play over and over the same songs, but we created 5 different pieces.  It’s cool because we haven’t done composition at school yet so we’ve never written music before.”

Temi and Joshua