Stockport Soars with Sound: Charity enchants 1300 students in inspiring workshops

As Stockport continues to celebrate being Greater Manchester Town of Culture, the Benedetti Foundation, working alongside Stockport Music Service, led nine free interactive workshops for primary and special schools for around 1,300 children and young people, where the pupils used percussion and voice while engaging with the musicians throughout the sessions.

In addition, there was a Continual Professional Development session for primary school teachers, plus a training session for instrumental teachers.

The final workshop was held for stringed instrument players in Stockport Town Hall’s ballroom, with about 160 young musicians taking part, which culminated in a final performance for parents and carers.

Councillor Frankie Singleton, Cabinet Member for Communities, Culture & Sport, said: “Stockport Council’s music service obviously shares the aims of the Benedetti Foundation as we want to inspire and educate the borough’s children through music. We want to make the magic of music available to as many youngsters as possible so it was a fantastic fit for them to come here to work with the children and teachers, especially as all the activities were provided free of charge to schools and pupils through the funding that the foundation are able to raise.”

The Benedetti Foundation was established in 2019 by violinist and dedicated advocate Nicola Benedetti CBE, with the support of its Founding Chair and his wife, George and Daphne Burnett to unite those who believe music is integral to life’s education. It delivers transformative experiences through mass music events and provides equal access to music participation and appreciation for all, led by Nicola and a tutor team comprising exceptional educators and performers from across the globe. So far it has worked with more than 75,000 participants of all ages from 105 countries, instrumentalists, and non-instrumentalists, hundreds of schools, produced nearly 1,100 pre-recorded and live lessons and its video content has over 6.5 million views.

Although the Benedetti Foundation team have now moved on to other areas, there is still a wide range of activities for our young musicians in the coming months.

These include:

• A range of concerts in December and March,
• ‘Battle of the Bands’ event for secondary school pupils, with local rock/pop bands vying to perform at The Spinning Top on 19 February and then be chosen to represent Stockport in a Greater Manchester Rock and Pop Showcase that takes place at Manchester Academy on 17 March, which is is part of its ongoing work to give young people creative opportunities that they wouldn’t normally get through schools, thereby building on the work done in school.
• Concert in Stockport Town Hall Ballroom on 2 February with the Wind Band and Youth Orchestra playing together.
• Other concerts in March in different venues across town to tie in with the end of the ToC programme and will be:

1. Thursday, 21 March, Stockport Music Centre, 5pm - Infant Music Makers.
2. Friday, 22 March, St Andrew’s Church, Cheadle Hulme, 7.30pm Strings Concert.

• Monday, 25 March, Venue TBC, 7pm Rockschool & Rockschool Senior Concert.

4. Tuesday 26 March, Venue TBC, 7:00pm Junior Voices and Musical Theatre Concert.
5. Wednesday, 27 March, St Andrew’s Church, Cheadle Hulme, 7pm Wind Bands and Jazz Club Concert.

• Further concerts in the summer term and a musical theatre group performance of High School Musical in July.

Any young people interested in taking part in the ensembles can email music.service@stockport.gov.uk, call on 0161 483 7636, or check the Stockport Music Service website for further detail

Lots of musical events will also be happening in different spaces around Stockport in the next couple of months and further details can be found on the Town Of Culture website.

Photo courtesy of SLP Photography