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. 
 
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To contribute as a guest writer please email Maria@music-workshop.co.uk 

Posts tagged “ORCHESTRAL MUSIC”

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The Orchestra

Posted on 17th April 2026 at 16:05
The orchestra has been at the heart of much of Western music for over 350 years. Many of the pieces in the recommended listening list in the Model Music Curriculum for England are written for orchestra. We explore how the orchestra developed throughout the centuries, for the first of our series of posts examining the make-up of Western orchestras. 
 
Check back in May for the next post in the series, when we’ll delve deeper into the string family. 
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Ralph Vaughan Williams at 150: a champion of music education

Posted on 14th October 2022 at 12:35
Even if you are not familiar with classical music, you will undoubtedly have heard the music of Ralph Vaughan Williams. The Lark Ascending and Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis consistently appear in the top 10 of Classic FM’s listener polls, and he is considered one of the quintessential composers of British history. 
 
Yet his music still divides opinion, and for many years, much of his output was neglected. Alongside these most famous pieces, Vaughan Williams wrote a huge variety of works including operas, ballets, chamber music, vocal pieces and orchestral compositions, with nine symphonies to his name. This month, we mark the 150th anniversary of his birth with a look back at his musical life. 
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The Opus Pocus Live: 1001 Arabian Nights – music education by stealth!

Posted on 28th September 2022 at 15:55
This month we have invited Matt Parry, creator of The Opus Pocus, to tell us how he’s turning his successful audio-book into a live theatre performance with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales.  
 
The upcoming production, 1001 Arabian Nights, promises a magical experience for children and a stealthy way of introducing youngsters to orchestral music. Here, he pulls back the curtain to give us a sneak preview of what audiences can expect. 
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