The Music Workshop Company Past Projects

Below are examples of projects we have already organised - we can adapt these projects to your specific needs.

Castle Primary, Northampton - Summer Fair

On 23rd June 2007, The Music Workshop Company supplied an unstructured workshop for Castle Primary School for their Summer Fair. We worked with children and adults on singing, chanting and percussion activities.

Roding Primary School, Woodford Bridge, Essex

On the 14th June 2007, The Music Workshop Company ran composition workshops at Roding Primary School, Woodford Bridge. We worked with Year 1 students on pieces about Dinosaurs and Year 4 students on pieces about Ancient Egypt. Roding Primary School specialises in provision for deaf children both in special units and in the main stream classes. We worked with a number of deaf children in both Year 1 and Year 4.

Beachborough Preparatory School, Northamptonshire

On 12th June 2007, The Music Workshop Company visited Beachborough Prep School, running a whole day of Latin American percussion workshops with nursery through to Year 2. The students were introduced to a selection of percussion instruments from around the World and then put together a Samba piece which was performed to parents at the end of the day.

Fleetville Infants School, St Albans, Hertfordshire

On 26th April 2007, The Music Workshop Company ran a World Percussion workshop at Fleetville Infant School in St Albans, Hertfordshire. Fleetville Infants is a large school with 3 classes in each year group, so we worked with 45 students in each group, running 6 sessions during the course of the day and ending with a sharing session.

Brownies and Guides, Hampshire North

On 3rd March 2007, The Music Workshop Company ran a slightly unusual workshop - we worked with about 450 brownies and guides in Basingstoke at the end of their International Activity Day. The workshop included call and response chants, singing rounds and a percussion activity leading to an impromptu performance at the end of the session to parents.

St Columba's Catholic Boys School

On the 31st October 2006 St Columba's Catholic Boys School, Bexleyheath was re-launched as an Arts College. The Music Workshop Company supplied 3 workshop leaders who worked with a group of boys aged 11 - 16 to create two pieces - one Samba influenced piece and one African influenced piece. Both pieces included percussion, vocal and dance / movement performances. The group performed to other students, staff and governors at the celebration launch event.

Erbs Palsy Family Fun Day, Coventry

On the 22nd October 2006 the Erbs Palsy Group held their annual Family Fun Day. The Music Workshop Company supplied music workshops throughout the day for participants of all ages and abilities.

Isobel Hospice - World Music Workshop

On the 7th October 2006, the Music Workshop Company supplied a World Music Workshop for the Isobel Hospice Day at the Howard Centre, Welwyn Garden City. We offered free workshops for all ages.

Tupton Hall School - Summer School

During the week of the 24th July 2006, a Music Workshop Company musician spent a week working with teenagers as part of the Tupton Hall Summer School. The musician worked with the students to create their own musical sound track to a drama project led by Trestle Theatre Group. The drama workshop gave the students the chance to create short plays - using masks with no dialogue so the music became an integral part of the performance.

Arts Marketing Seminar, University of Hertfordshire

On Friday 5th May 2006, The Music Workshop Company's Artistic Director, Maria Thomas ran a seminar on participatory music as part of the annual Arts Marketing Seminar held at the University of Hertfordshire. The seminar looked at how participation can highten an audience's enjoyment of an event - participation such as singing along to a well known song, using body percussion(clapping / stamping etc) or being part of the main performance following a workshop. This was followed by a hands on workshop where participants took part in a number of percussion based activities.

World Music Day at Bellini's River Cafe, Welwyn

On Monday 1st May 2006, The Music Workshop Company ran a World Music day at Bellini's River Cafe, Welwyn. Participants of all ages enjoyed a hands on percussion workshop and children got a free musical instrument to take home.

Cambridgeshire Out of School project

On Saturday 11th March 2006, the Music Workshop Company ran a Latin American percussion workshop for Youth Leaders in Cambridgeshire at their conference. The workshop introduced the leaders to rhythm games and the instruments and rhythms of Brazil - giving the leaders activities to take back to their youth clubs. All participants were given a resource pack giving information on making percussion instruments out of junk.

J.H. Promotions

During December 2005, The Music Workshop Company supplied music workshops for J.H. Promotions. We supplied workshop facilitators for a Corporate-sponsored Christmas party for under-privileged children.

Harrods Department Store

On Saturday 13th August 2005, the Music Workshop Company ran a World Percussion workshop in the Toy Department of Harrods, London on behalf of Lea Graham Associates. The activities were devised according to who wanted to join in from the many shoppers passing by. Activities ranged from children trying out a range of percussion instruments, organised Samba and African drumming sessions, free improvisation sessions and one to one mini tuition sessions for adults.

Participants at the Harrods Toy Deparment workshop

Brookland Junior School, London

During the week of the 13th June 2005 the Music Workshop Company supplied Brookland Junior School with 4 days of music workshops. One of the teachers said "Thank you for organising the four music workshops which took place during Arts week. All of the musicians were punctual, polite and approachable and kept to the timings agreed. Having spoken to the staff the workshops the children particularly enjoyed were the song writings and Percussion as there was a fast pace and children were challenged. They enjoyed performing with the workshop leader and the experience of playing with a talented professional musician."

Warley Road Primary School, Halifax

During the week of the 6th December 2004 the Music Workshop Company supplied Warley Road Primary School, Halifax with 3 days of music workshops. One Music Workshop Company singer worked with the entire junior school over the course of two days - preparing the students for a recording which took place the following week. The students learnt a range of songs from the Caribbean as well as Christmas songs from around the World. On the 10th December, an animateur worked with Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 students on Samba music. Before the workshop the students all made their own percussion instruments using a Music Workshop Company education pack, then on the day of the workshop the students learnt about music in Brazil and learnt to play Samba rhythms.

Click here to read the Testimonial from Warley Road Primary School.

Musical instruments made by Warley Road Primary School Students

Chippenham Arts Festival at Abbeyfield School

On the 24th November 2004 two Music Workshop Company musicians ran a day of workshops at Abbeyfield School as part of the Chippenham Arts Festival. Year 9 and Year 10 students learnt about how to play the djembe and built up a repertoire of several rhythms. Year 7 students worked with Year 6 students from Kings Lodge Primary School and learnt about life in Africa, how to play the djembe and they drew pictures of African musical instruments.

Soham Village College

Soham Village College are running a series of Multi-cultural workshops throughout 2004/05 for year 6 and 7 students who live in and around Soham. The project is funded by Youth Music, and the Music Workshop Company devised the series of workshops and is supplying all the musicians. All workshops are interactive with hands on music making lead by professional musicians. Projects that have already taken place are:

World Percussion Workshop
The first project on 11 September (pictured below) was an introduction to World Music Percussion and the participants learnt to play Samba rhythms.

Afro-American Vocal Workshop
The workshop on 09 October was an introduction to Afro-American Music the participants learnt Spiritual songs including Swing Low, Sweet Chariot and Go Down Moses. In the workshop the participants created their own "body percussion" accompaniments to the songs, learnt harmonies and created performances based on vocals and movement.

West African Drumming
The workshop on 13 November was an introduction to West African Drumming. It was probably the noisiest workshop of the series and the participants learnt how to play the Djembe and Djun Djun.

British Folk Music Vocal Workshop
The workshop on 11 December was an introduction to songs from the British Isles. Students learnt a variety of songs from England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales.

Latin American Percussion
The workshop on 8 January introduced a range of percussion instruments and the rhythms and music of Latin American Music. The participants also had an impromptu drum kit lesson!

Jazz
On Saturday 12 February a jazz quartet introduced the participants to jazz music through rehearsal and performance.

Caribbean Music - Vocal and percussion workshop
On Saturday 09 April vocalists worked with the participants on songs from the Caribbean - covering Socca, Reggae and Calyspo.

Classical Indian Music - Instrumental workshop
On Saturday 14 May participants worked with 2 Classical Indian Musicians to create a performance of a Classical Indian piece. The participants were introduced to the tabla and sita and had the chance to play both instruments.

North Africa Percussion - Percussion workshops
On Saturday 11 June participants learnt rhythms from North African and performed them on Darabukas and other percussion instruments. The session finished with a performance to the mayor of Soham's twin town in France who was on a visit to the county. The students also had a chance to try out some "junk percussion" showing how musicians all over the World create their own instruments from the materials around them.

Grand Finale - Songs and rhythms from around the World
Our 11 month workshop series in Soham came to a close with a vocal workshop where the participants learnt songs from around the World. We completed the project with a performance to the Youth Leader, Linda Homan and parents - performing songs and pieces learnt throughout the year.

Deincourt Community School

Last summer Deincourt Community School in Derbyshire had a one off African Drumming workshop lasting a morning. The djembes and dun-duns were supplied by the workshop leader and the students were introduced to the rhythms of West Africa.

Workshop at Deincourt Community School.

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