The Outreach team have all worked incredibly hard over the last few months to run our various projects in person once again, and we’re so happy that almost all our events were able to take place in real life last term!
Our Relaxed Performance concert in semester one, working with Venture Arts, was a massive success. This took place over Zoom, and included several pre-recorded videos based around musical theatre, as well as live elements, such as an interactive telling of ‘Wicked’ which Esther led, and she encouraged everyone to certain actions when she said certain words in the story! There were performances from instrumental and vocal chamber groups, piano solos, and dances. We can’t wait to hold another relaxed concert in semester two – hopefully in person!
Paloma has been running our Primary Schools project weekly in local schools - we have been leading children’s choirs and helping them to grow their confidence in singing, as well as holding Bamboo Tamboo workshops to encourage group listening and music-making! In semester two we will hopefully hold a concert for the schools to come together and perform for a live audience in the Martin Harris Centre!
Our Choir project, led by Molly, has all taken place fully in-person in the past few months; this really took off aroundChristmas time, as we performed for several community events in southManchester such as coffee mornings and charity fundraisers! We can’t wait to continue singing in the local area in the coming months.
Juliette also began running our chamber ensembles in-person this year – so far we have held two events for care homes which have been incredibly successful! One of the events took place over Zoom, and the other was fortunately face to face! We’re hoping to continue our work with care homes this semester, as well as starting to visit schools to hold interactive events for children.
Finally, the Orchestra project has been fully in-person this year, visiting three primary schools so far and hoping to visit more in the coming term! We performed a mixture of music, such as classical music and Disney, as well as giving a Christmas concert for a school in December. Emma hosted each concert and we included interactive elements for the children, such as asking them to name each instrument and giving them short demonstrations of the instruments alone and getting them to sing along when they knew the words!
The Outreach Orchestra is made up of MUMS members who visit schools in Manchester to give orchestral concerts to school children. We perform a mixture of repertoire, ranging from classical to popular music, and allow school pupils to watch a live orchestra in a fun and relaxing environment!
Our Relaxed Performance Concerts are run alongside Venture Arts to allow people with learning disabilities attend live concerts in a fun, relaxed, and safe environment. We hold one concert in each semester, with many interactive elements and we are hoping to introduce dance and drama to the programme this year!
The Primary Schools Project runs choirs in three primary schools who rehearse separately throughout each term, before joining together for a concert accompanied by an orchestra at Christmas and Easter. We also run Bamboo Tamboo workshops introducing children to music-making through rhythms and group listening.
The Outreach Chamber Groups are a new project which began in 2020 due to COVID restrictions limiting the size of our Orchestra. We have so far worked with primary schools and care homes online, but we can’t wait to perform in-person this year, and we are hoping to incorporate drama elements into our performances!
The Outreach Choir visits hospitals and care homes to give interactive choral concerts with interactive elements for residents on a weekly basis. We strongly encourage the audience to join in as much as they would like!
