The Music Workshop Company Blog 

Each month the Music Workshop Company publishes two blogs. One blog, written by the MWC team addresses a key issue in Music Education or gives information about a particular genre or period of music. The other blog is written by a guest writer, highlighting good practice or key events in Music Education. We hope you enjoy reading the blogs. 
 
We embed multimedia content in many of our blog posts, if you have rejected cookies for this website, you may have white spaces where the multimedia content should be. This is due to a recent change of policy by YouTube, Spotify and other platforms. We are in the process of updating all our posts. If you come across white spaces in a blog post, you can open the link in another browser or private browser and approve cookies to access all the content. We are sorry for any inconvenience this causes. 
 
To contribute as a guest writer please email Maria@music-workshop.co.uk 

Posts tagged “MUSIC”

This month we welcome back award-winning music teacher, Nat Dye MBE.  
 
Nat's very personal exploration of what music can bring to us, especially in the face of a terminal diagnosis, is an important reminder of music's ability to be a vehicle for self-expression as well as a way of connecting with one another. 
 
He discusses some the amazing experiences he has had since his diagnosis including running the London Marathon playing his trombone and being made an MBE in the New Years Honours List. 
Jazz standards are musical compositions that form a fundamental part of the repertoire and language of jazz.  
 
They are often performed and recorded, and are therefore widely known to listeners.  
 
They are also used within education to introduce key musical concepts such as certain chord progressions and modes. 
 
The BBC have launched this year’s BBC Young Composer competition. Previously known as the BBC Proms Inspire Competition and the BBC Young Composer of the Year, the annual competition is open to composers aged between 12 and 18 from across the UK. Winners take part in a development programme and work with a mentor composer on a composition for the BBC Concert Orchestra, to be performed at the BBC Proms in 2021 in a special young composers concert. The closing date for entries to the competition is 5pm on Thursday 11 June 2020. 
December 2020 marks the 250th anniversary of Beethoven’s birth. 
 
The event seems to have split the Classical Music community.  
 
Some individuals and organisations see the occasion as an opportunity to celebrate Beethoven’s musical achievements.  
 
Others suggest that Beethoven’s music is popular enough and performances and recordings of it are already so plentiful that audiences should be exploring new repertoire and lesser known composers, and particularly work by underrepresented groups. 
On 18th December 1892, Tchaikovsky’s ballet The Nutcracker was premiered at the Imperial Mariinsky Theatre in Saint Petersburg, Russia.  
 
Although the ballet is now popular throughout the world, the premiere was not well received, with popularity only coming after Tchaikovsky worked the music into a Suite. 
 
Following the success of Sleeping Beauty, Tchaikovsky was looking for inspiration for his next ballet and a gift of a new Russian translation of E.T.A Hoffmann’s story Nussknacker und Mausekönig gave him a story he could work with.  
 
It has been suggested that his love of the ballet Coppelia by Delibes, premiered in 1870, which was also based on two Hoffmann stories, Der Sandmann (The Sandman) and Die Puppe (The Doll) may have influenced his decision. 
On 20th November, UK Music, the campaigning and lobbying group, which represents every part of the UK Recorded and Live Music Industry, launched it’s Music by Num8ers 2019 report.  
 
Each year, the UK Music report shines a light on the value and contributions made by the music industry. 

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