On Wednesday 3 May at Cadogan Hall the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra had the immense pleasure of welcoming young musicians from St Gregory's Catholic Science College to the stage for a unique performance of Celeste, a piece created for this occasion that brought the Orchestra and the young musicians together under the baton of conductor Antony Hermus.
During her year as the RPO’s Artist-in-Residence, Isata Kanneh-Mason has been working with our community and education team, RPO Resound, to deliver a range of bespoke opportunities engaging young people in primary and secondary schools in the London Borough of Brent with the Orchestra and performing orchestral music.
“It’s been an absolute pleasure to be part of the project and it’s always pure joy to go into schools and work directly with the children. It was particularly exciting to be able to include a book that my sister wrote and to forge and link the story to the music so closely. This is something I have always been passionate about and so it was lovely to see the children respond so well to the idea.” Isata Kanneh-Mason
The encore after the first half heard in Cadogan Hall, conducted by Antony Hermus, was the culmination of the final project of this residency season, and is the outcome of a series of workshops with the young musicians from St Gregory’s Catholic Science College. Led by workshop leader and composer Charlotte Harding, twenty young musicians collaborated with Isata and members of the RPO to devise a brand new piece of music themed around stars. Taking inspiration from Dohnányi’s Variations on a Nursery Song, students generated rhythms, melodies, harmonies, motifs and lyrics which have been expertly woven together under Charlotte’s guidance and orchestrated by Liam Taylor-West. The young musicians joined Isata and the full Orchestra onstage to give the world premiere performance, the culmination of this exciting creative project.
Isata visiting Kingsbury Green Primary School in Brent this February for musical workshops with RPO Resound.
This project has been made possible thanks to generous support from John Lyon’s Charity and Brent Council.