Edinburgh

Monday 20 January 2014

Meeting with Lucy Foorde, SCO Connect Director

SCO Education outcomes are not about the number of students who participate, but it is more about delivering high quality programs, engagement and the programs legacy.

SCO Connect oversees all of SCO’s education and outreach programs.

The main orchestral education related programs which SCO deliver are SCO Vibe, master class, family concerts, masterworks and residencies.

SCO Vibe
Its focus is about children from all ages and walks of life in creating music. Musicians from SCO and Edinburgh Music Service deliver the programs in schools and then during a weekend or school holidays a more advanced program exists for students, led by animateur, Paul Griffiths.

Masterworks
It began in 1998 and over time it has evolved and changed. The aim is to help make contemporary or more challenging music more accessible. It is a project that is aimed predominantly for students studying classroom music. To ensure the project’s longevity a detailed program of teacher in-servicing, workshops with SCO musicians and classroom activities. A key part of ensuring the project’s legacy is the investment into the program from schools and the local music services.

Residencies
The focus of residencies is to find how can SCO and the school can create an embedded relationship over a period of time so that it can achieve numerous educational, cultural and social impacts throughout the whole school.

SCO Vibe Workshop at Canongate Youth Services, Edinburgh
I participated in a two-hour workshop with a percussionist and singer working with approximately 10 teenagers who have or are about to leave school. The project taught musical and social skills and allowed every participant to create music through improvisation using voice and /or hand percussion. By the end of the workshop the participants created refined improvisations and learnt new musical skills.

Wednesday 22 January 2014
Meeting with Roy McEwan OBE, Chief Executive SCO

SCO is recognised as a national performing arts company which receives it funding directly from the Scottish Government. As part of the funding there are no prescriptive educational outcomes, rather it is a case that it is an expected outcome as part of the organisation’s overall programs.

Education programs commenced in the 1980s where there was a lot of activity, without perhaps the level of current focus on teacher resources and quality. The organisation’s culture is now of learning across life and that is central to everything they do.

SCO Exploring Music Lecture
Tom Wilkinson at University of Edinburgh presented a two-hour lecture for an audience of about 10 people aged over 50 about Mozart’s symphonies no 36 ‘Linz’ and no 40 and ‘Great’ Mass in C minor. Three works which SCO will perform in April and May 2014. The workshop covered aspects of Mozart’s style, harmonic language, orchestration and performance practice.