Young Churchill Music!

"Congratulations for changing the climate of understanding and experience for these young people. Churchill Music! is a truly amazing organization."
Mike Brewer OBE - Director of the National Youth Choirs of Great Britain"

Through close links with local schools and St George's Bristol, Churchill Music! has developed an extensive and varied programme of youth and community work, supported by generous donations from our Champions and sponsorship from the Cavatina Chamber Music Trust to which Churchill Music! is proud to be affiliated. Please browse this page to find out what we've been doing in Churchill Academy and Sixth Form Centre, Local Primary Schools, and in the community.

Churchill Music! @ Churchill Academy and Sixth Form Centre

We are proud to support many forms of music making in this 1,650-student school which was granted Specialist Performing Arts status in 2002. Churchill Music! is represented on their Performing Arts Steering Group. Churchill Music! works with the school to provide:

• Curriculum-based programming
• Workshops
• Churchill Young Musician of the Year Competition

Curriculum-based programming

Each year, Churchill Music! launches its new season with a concert especially arranged to include either the work to be studied by the A-level students or an aspect of music chosen by the Churchill Academy's Director of Music which will enhance the music GCSE and A-level courses. The 2010/2011 season was launched by Aquinas Piano Trio - Ruth Rogers, leader of the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra with Katherine Jenkinson, 'cello and Martin Cousin, piano worked with the students before their concert and performed works by Beethoven, Haydn and Dvorak to an enraptured audience.

"I never realized that chamber music could be such fun." Tom - student at Churchill Academy and Sixth Form Centre

Student tickets to these concerts are subsidised through the Cavatina Chamber Music Trust Ticket Scheme.

Workshops

Churchill Music! sponsors internationally renowned musicians to lead workshops in the schools. Workshop leaders have included violist Richard Crabtree, The Eden:Stell guitar duo, Mike Brewer OBE with the Laudibus Chamber Choir, The Stenzl Brothers piano duo, the Barbirolli Quartet with clarinettist Timothy Orpen, Majestic Brass and the Carducci String Quartet (winners of no fewer than seven international chamber music competitions and sponsored by the Cavatina Trust). In 2010/11, both the Aquinas Piano Trio and the Carducci Quartet worked with the students.

"We thoroughly enjoyed our day and it's fantastic to see what can be done with determined and enthusiastic people on the case" Carducci Quartet

Churchill Young Musician of the Year

Open to music students of all genres at the Academy, Churchill Music! created this competition in 2007 to encourage and reward not only technical excellence but also performance skills and presentation. Three awards are made, generously supported by an anonymous donor: Churchill Young Musician of the Year, Churchill Music! Junior Trophy, and Churchill Music! Audience Trophy. The Churchill Young Musician of the Year and the Junior Trophy are awarded by our judging panel, which includes a professional performing musician with representatives from Churchill Music!. Our audience vote for the student whom they feel deserve the specially commissioned Audience Trophy. Pictured is Lynne Puckey with the 2011 Churchill Young Musician of the Year, Ben Greenwood-Rogers.

The 2012 competition takes place on Monday 30 January at 6pm in St John the Baptist Church, Churchill.

"I think this competion is great and it gave me a newly-found confidence in solo performances."
James Scriven, Churchill Young Musician of the Year 2007

Churchill Music! @ Local Primary Schools

In close liaison with local Primary Schools, Churchill Music! sponsors:

• Churchill Music! Violin Project
• Magic Music events

Churchill Music! Violin Project

Having identified an urgent need for greater string provision at Churchill Primary School, Churchill Music! approached local businesses, Churchill Parish Council and private donors to help purchase 10 quarter-size violins for the school. Started under the expert guidance of our Patron, Vivienne Price, MBE, founder of the National Children's Orchestra, and continued with Liz Whittam, performing violinist, we are proud to be providing an opportunity for every Year 2 pupil at Churchill Primary School to try learning the violin. Such is the success of this project that in 2011, a further project was started in Sandford Primary School.

Sarah Joskey, former Deputy Head and music coordinator for Churchill Primary School, said, "This project is giving these groups of enthusiastic children an unforgettable musical experience. The children are always so excited when it is their turn and they return to the classroom full of pride in their achievements. We are so grateful to Churchill Music! for enabling this to happen."

"It was fun. I liked helping my friends. I loved violin lessons. Thank you for teaching me." Sujan

"It was nice. It was hard work. It was fun. It was fantastic and it made me happy and proud." Brenton

"I love it. I enjoyed it. I liked it and it made me get out of lessons." Scarlett

"I thought the violin was fun. We should carry on doing the violin. I really liked it when I was playing. I felt really pleased with myself and I think I’ve improved." Ben

Magic Music Days

Churchill Music! organises, facilitates and sponsors or part-sponsors internationally renowned musicians to lead workshops in the school. Workshops have been given by the Pavao Quartet, the Thorneloe Trio, violist Richard Crabtree, the Drum Blondes, the Eden:Stell guitar duo, Majestic Brass (who combined music with numeracy), the New London Chamber Ensemble wind quintet, John Dalton, harpist, the Barbirolli Quartet, the Carducci String Quartet and the Aquinas Piano Trio to name but a few.

Mike Brewer, Director and founder of the National Youth Choirs of Great Britain and renowned for his work on music from other cultures, presented a workshop with a World Music theme in preparation for the choir taking part in Churchill Music!'s major community event featuring Laudibus with Youth and Community Choirs, Songs on a Summer Afternoon. "The children were absolutely buzzing with the concert today. It was wonderful to be part of the day and to work with Mike Brewer and the other choirs - something that the children (and staff) will never forget!" Sarah Joskey, Deputy Head

Churchill Music! in the Community

As well as supporting activities in Churchill Academy and Sixth Form Centre and Churchill Primary School, Churchill Music! encourages the two to come together, along with local choirs such as the Trinity Singers (directed by Jeremy Martin) to make music together, to learn from one another, and to share in the joy of singing as one.

Through Churchill Music! Mike Brewer, musical director of the National Youth Choirs of Great Britain and Laudibus, conducted workshops with Churchill Academy and Sixth Form Centre's Chamber Choir and a joint workshop with the chamber choir and the Trinity Singers prior to their joint performance of Karl Jenkins' The Armed Man - a Mass for Peace. Mike returned with Laudibus in 2008 to conduct a workshop in Churchill Primary School, Churchill Academy and Sixth Form Centre's Gospel Choir and the Trinity Singers prior to all taking part in the Laudibus Songs for a Summer afternoon concert in the gardens of Churchill Court. Mike is generally regarded as the father of the youth choir movement in Britain and the wider world and was Director of Music at Chethams, Britain's largest music school for gifted children, for twenty years. As well as his work with the National Youth Choirs of Great Britain he is a conductor of various other award winning choirs worldwide and has won the worldwide competition 'Let the People Sing' twice.

"Face to face with a world-renowned choir leader, taking part - it's a pretty special feeling!" member of Trinity Singers

Gareth Jones wrote about Songs on a Summer Afternoon in the Cheddar Valley Gazette. Read what he wrote in our news section.

Children's concerts

Autumn 2010 saw the launch of a new project - a special family concert aimed at families with primary school age children. In collaboration with St George's Bristol and generously sponsored by the Cavatina Chamber Music Trust, the Galeazzi Flute and Strings brought their wealth of experience in providing an entertaining, interactive events for young people to an enthralled audience. Such was its success that another concert is planned for 2011. Please see forthcoming events for details.

Schools concerts

Churchill Music! with St George's Bristol and Churchill Academy and Sixth Form Centre designed a special, interactive and lively schools concert. Year 6 pupils from feeder primary schools travel to Churchill School to hear top-quality live music performed by professional musicians. Pupils are not only inspired by the music, but will also gain a feeling for the strong musical ethos of the next step in their education. Feedback from pupils, teachers and parents strongly indicated that this age group enthusiastically responds to classical chamber music.