Outreach
Milngavie Music Club’s vision has always been to bring music of the very highest quality to the town. Over the past ten years or so it has sought to broaden its engagement with the community through initiatives involving our young people in various ways. Some of our visiting musicians have visited local schools, playing to children in short concerts and workshops and introducing them to the thrill of live music.
Since 2017 the club has worked with McOpera, a group formed by professional musicians, with the emphasis on excellent outreach and project work. Together we have created more ambitious projects that involve and inspire our young people in a number of ways:
Three Billy Goats Gruff (2024-25)
Introducing music and instruments to nursery and early primary pupils via story-telling was the focus of our outreach with McOpera in 2024. McOpera devised an interactive workshop based around the tale of the Three Billy Goats Gruff with music by Ruth Gipps and commissioned illustrations by Scottish-born artist Elly Strigner. The workshops were designed to be fun and interactive, introducing four instruments to the children (oboe, bassoon, horn and voice).
The workshops ran at Milngavie Primary School and at Woodland View School and Early Years Centre.
“The children were mesmerised by the instruments and enjoyed hearing about them. The story-telling part of the session kept the children engaged too. The length of time worked well for infant classes, also lots of moving about and information about different instruments was great". Teacher
Milngavie Primary School have been awarded a We Make Music Scotland Gold Award. These awards celebrate music-making in schools, and the gold award is a recognition that music is embedded across the school in a variety of ways. Three Billy Goats Gruff was one aspect of their case for the award.
The project was supported through the generosity of Milngavie Music Club subscribers.
Let’s Make Music (2020-22)
Originally planned for 2020, the final performances of this project couldn’t take place until 2022 due to the pandemic. New and 20th century music was the focus for this project. There were two main strands. The first was a new commission from Tom Harrold for 13 winds, written for side-by- side, professionally-mentored high school wind players. The second was the children’s opera “Wir Bauen Eine Stadt” by Hindemith. The two strands combined with the wind players writing their own orchestrations for the opera via workshops with Tom Harrold. The project was a collaboration with McOpera, the Music School of Douglas Academy, MMus conducting students from the Royal Conservatoire and Craigdhu Primary School.
Milngavie Music Club commissioned Tom Harrold to write The Darkest Shore for 13 winds, in memory of John Robinson, former President and Honorary President of the club. It was premiered as part of the 2022-2023 International Concert Series along with works by Erik Chisholm, Hindemith and Strauss.
Hindemith’s opera for children was re-imagined as Let’s Build a City in a multi-generational project exploring issues of increasing urbanisation and how we might address this ecologically with respect for the environment - to create an operatic town built by and for our children of the future, designing and visualising what a new city might look like if none of the adults were in charge!
Creative workshops coached the primary school children in singing and staging. This was also performed as part of the wind concert.
“I have been working on developing my musicianship skills, particularly listening. Taking part in this project really helped me to improve my playing within an ensemble, particularly keeping in time. It was really helpful to have that one to one support from a professional musician who I could follow
and learn from". High School Wind player.
”This was a stunning program of varied and well chosen music to be performed by a group of wind players of diverse ages (from S2 to professional) and stages. The students received encouragement and first rate tuition. They had a chance to play in two large and well organised concerts which helped build up confidence. It was an incredibly fun and valuable experience". High School Teacher
The project was supported by Milngavie Music Club, Music@St Cyprians. the Hinrichsen Foundation, and a Scotmid Community grant.
A Fanfare for Milngavie: Bringing Back Music (2021)
2020 and 2021 were difficult times for live music thanks to the global pandemic and UK lockdowns. Bringing Back Music was a collaboration between the Music School of Douglas Academy, Milngavie Music Club and McOpera Outreach culminating in a socially-distanced performance with an invited audience of club members and parents.
The main event was a side-by-side concerto opportunity for string players and pianists at the school, but the preparation and rehearsal was as much a part of the project as the final concert. Creative work experience opportunities for the main school were an integral part of this project, and two students from the Douglas Academy media studies and music courses were coached in script writing and presenting to camera by Hugh Macdonald.
The filmed performance was released on YouTube in early October for music club members still uneasy at returning to live concert attendance and the wider public to share the club's outreach activity.
"It was wonderful to hear live music again and to realise that the next generation of performers,and hence the next generation of teachers, are in good health in spite of all the difficulties of the last 18 months or so!" (Audience members)
Friday Afternoons - A Song for Flight (2019)
Friday Afternoons – A Song for Flight marked the culmination of a wide ranging inter-generational project for over 120 primary school children and high school instrumentalists, and was the third in a series of outreach projects commissioned from McOpera by Milngavie Music Club and managed by Sue Baxendale, McOpera’s Outreach Project Manager.
Focusing on the music of Benjamin Britten and his contemporaries, the project centred on Britten’s 1935 song cycle for children ‘Friday Afternoons’. It has inspired a world-wide music education initiative (www.fridayafternoonsmusic.co.uk/about) begun in 2013 by Snape Maltings to celebrate the Britten Centenary by encouraging children to sing.
Our version of the project also involved young string players from across East Dunbartonshire and began early in 2019 with a concert given by them at St Cyprian’s Church in Lenzie. Their preparations included a series of workshops and mentored rehearsals during which McOpera’s professional quintet of string players led by Katie Hull worked side-by-side with 19 talented high school musicians from the East Dunbartonshire Instrumental Music Service and the Music School of Douglas Academy to develop ensemble techniques, listening and communication skills, team building and musicianship.
In March, the project continued with children in two local primary schools - St Machan’s Primary School (Lennoxtown) and Clober Primary School (Milngavie) - led by composer and vocal animator Moira Morrison, and included the composition of a new song, inspired by workshops with the children and funded by the Glasgow Airport Flight Path Fund. Entitled ‘A Song for Flight’, this piece explores how travel and flight can broaden horizons and bring opportunities to communities.
Discussing the composition of the new song, composer Moira Morrison said, “…the children gave their song depth, a poignant angle. Not only that seeing a plane flying overhead starts them wondering, questioning where they might end up and who they might become, but also asking about those people in the sky – are they flying or fleeing, and can we give them a better world here and now”.
The project climaxed with all the singers (along with children of the East Dunbartonshire Children’s Chorus) and string players at Cairns Church performing side-by-side with the professional McOpera musicians in the final concert of Milngavie Music Club‘s International concert series on 26 April 2019.
As well as Britten’s Friday Afternoons songs orchestrated by Peter Kemp, the programme included music for strings by Bridge, Holst and Britten.
Milngavie Music Club received generous funding for this project from The Robertson Trust, the Glasgow Airport Fight Path Fund, Enterprise Music Scotland and East Dunbartonshire Arts Council.
East Dunbartonshire Young Musicians 2018
Milngavie Music Club worked with McOpera’s Outreach Project Manager Sue Baxendale to develop a training scheme for talented young musicians from the county, continuing the work in the community begun with The Tales’ Project.
The project was launched at MMC’s December 2017 concert given by the young saxophone virtuoso (and BBC Young Musician finalist) Jess Gillam. Prior to the concert, our seven successful young musicians, chosen by audition, met for a Q&A session with Jess while the String Quartet of the Music School of Douglas Academy performed a Dvorak String Quartet in the interval of the concert with the 3 finalists joined by fellow pupil, Anna Mackenzie.
Over succeeding months the aspiring young musicians took part in a unique work experience project designed to give them insights into the professional musical world, attending workshops on performance related topics and playing and working alongside the experienced orchestral players from Music Co-OPERAtive Scotland (McOpera). As part of the project, the students also attended Milngavie Music Club’s concerts, meeting the visiting musicians and also giving short interval and pre-concert performances themselves.
The project culminated on June 2nd, 2018 with a chamber music concert at Bearsden Cross Church, where the young people performed alongside McOpera’s professional ensemble.
The young musicians were:
Corin Whitmarsh: Violin (Music School of Douglas Academy, S5)
Esther Ersfield: Piano, viola (Music School of Douglas Academy, S4)
Clara Daley: Cello (Music School of Douglas Academy, S6)
Kirsty Donaldson: Clarinet (Lenzie Academy, S6)
Katrina Mulheran: Oboe (currently on a gap year, prior to taking her place reading music at Cambridge University)
Emily Kemp: Voice (St Ninians High School, S4)
Raj Bhaumik: Clarinet (Music School of Douglas Academy, S2)
The Tales Project (April 2017)
Anticipating its 2017-2018 75th Anniversary season the club approached McOpera to commission an ambitious project based around Stravinsky’s classic music-theatre piece ‘The Soldier’s Tale’ that would climax in a concert on April 21st 2017 at Cairns Church.
The project, devised by McOpera’s Sue Baxendale and based on ‘Cautionary Tales and Fables’, included a performance of ‘The Soldier’s Tale’ in its full septet version and featured a new song cycle by composer Peter Kemp for children’s chorus (East Dunbartonshire Children’s Chorus and Youth Choir, conducted by Janet Lax) and instrumental ensemble.
Drawing on Milngavie’s local history, heritage and archeology, the project explored historic events and stories from Milngavie and district set to music as a series of songs. These included Bennie’s railplane, the madcap events of Charlie the elephant at Craigend Zoo, the folly of the Antonine Wall and Vincenzo Lunardi’s ill-fated hot air balloon flight. These were workshopped within the community in a variety of formats (with both adult and children’s community groups, using music, art, text and photography). The children (some 70-80 were involved) learned about their local history and performed Peter Kemp’s witty, entertaining songs from memory; they also gave pop-up performances around the district in locations associated with the tales a few days prior to the main concert.
An animated film was created by Roddy Simpson, with local storyboard artist Derek Gray, to accompany the Stravinsky which was conducted by Sian Edwards and narrated by Flora Munro. For this project the club was fortunate to be nominated by Waitrose, Milngavie for a major grant from the John Lewis Partnership’s Music Matters fund, which is competed for by music organisations all over the UK. We also received a grant from East Dunbartonshire Arts Council.
“I loved how well the music was written as the musical style went perfectly with the time we were singing about. It was a unique way of learning the area’s history and was a really fun way to show people what our choir can do.” EDYC 15 year old singer
“a fantastically unique and unforgettable experience for all the young people involved.” Parent
S1
S2
S3
S4