BBC -Concert Orchestra

MusicLab was the BBC CO's new project for secondary schools, the first to be targeted at 'teens' (12 to 16 year olds) in response to Mark Thompson's call for this age group to be better served by the BBC. The project ended with a concert at the Watford Colosseum on Wednesday 18 October 2006.

Workshops in all the schools involved supporting composition, arranging, and performance skills. Five Watford schools were closely involved in the project, each school having a role in participating in the concert as presenters, players, composers and singers. The concert included music by Sigur Ros, Arvo Pärt and Jocelyn Pook as well as compositions, arrangements and visual media (thanks to the involvement of BBC 21CC) created and performed by the school students themselves.

Conducted by Robert Ziegler, and presented by BBC 1Xtra's Iyare, the event was an unique musical experience for the young people involved, broadening and deepening their ideas about the orchestral sound world, and supporting and enriching their music making at home and at school.

You can watch highlights of the event at BBC London

Schools that participated MusicLab

St Joan of Arc RC School, Rickmansworth
Parmiter's School, Garston
Watford Grammar School for Boys
Watford Grammar School for Girls
Bushey Hall School, Bushey

"As a member of Parmiter's Choir, the weeks of preparation for the MusicLab concert involved rehearsing every week. To begin with, these rehearsals were purely to get to know the music and the individual parts. The music was challenging in the sense that it required a sense of timing and an ability to be able to hear (or count) where one had to come in next. This was due to the fact that there were instrumental sections that only the orchestra were playing in.

When the music and singing were more secure, a group of musicians consisting of a trumpeter, bassoonist, violinist and a pianist came in to a few of our rehearsals. They represented the different sections of the orchestra and so we had an idea what each part would be playing, which helped listening out for cues. It also demonstrated the calibre of the musicians we were singing with, since they were told to swap music and sight-read parts on demand.

Lastly the conductor, Robert Ziegler, came to a rehearsal and brought everything together. It was ineresting to see how a conductor works, and he helped us get an idea what the whole concert would sound like, and how we needed to improve to be able to be heard above a large orchestra.

On the day of the actual concert, we arrived some hours early to rehearse and do a run through. Part of the experinece was to be able to hear an orchestra rehearsing, and it was an experience many of the choir had not had before. We were also given an opportunity to see inside the radio broadcasting truck. I really enjoyed MusicLab and think it is a fantastic way of introducing children to classical music, enabling them to take part for themselves."

Year 11 student from Parmiter's School