An extraordinary year for Southampton Music Hub
As another school year comes to an end, Southampton Music Hub looks back on a year which has been unlike any other.
Mayflower 400
Symphony 400: The Voyage
The year, and our Mayflower 400 journey, began in four primary schools, where composer James Redwood collected musical ideas inspired by the Mayflower story.
Over the next few months, those ideas inspired a momentous musical voyage for a new orchestra of 100 talented secondary musicians, alongside digital remixes and resources for others to play and create for themselves.
Big Sing: The Journey
Alongside Symphony 400, Southampton Music Hub partnered with Mayflower Theatre to take inspirational songs from their newly commissioned musicals to school children across the city. The songs inspired and motivated hundreds of hours of workshops and rehearsals for young singers.
Southampton: A Musical Odyssey
In early March, over 1000 young musicians performed two nights of unforgettable music at the Mayflower Theatre, with a programme of music which included musical performances of all shapes and sizes, including the debuts of Symphony 400: The Voyage and Big Sing: The Journey.
“I was really nervous — I’ve never done anything like this before — but being with my friends, I was able to get on stage and sing with everybody!”
— year four pupil from Hollybrook Junior School
Responding to Covid-19
Just a few weeks after the unforgettable events at the Mayflower Theatre — a celebration of the passion, creativity and resilience of the city’s young musicians — the country went into lockdown in response to the coronavirus pandemic, and that same passion, creativity and resilience was shown once again, in the face of unprecedented circumstances.
In the past few months...
Southampton Music Services has moved over 600 music lessons online
City ensembles have created a virtual concert programme
Pizza boxes of music-making activities have been sent to shielded children
A new Soundbites Digital programme has allowed First Access to continue in schools and at home
‘The Greatest Friend’ encouraged children to look after their own wellbeing and the wellbeing of others
Weekly instrumental and curriculum newsletters have supported schools and home learners
Resources from the Synthesis project have inspired independent electronic music-making
At every stage, young musicians and all those that support them — from their families to music teachers, to hub partners and beyond — have shown incredible resilience, creativity and passion for keeping music playing.
Looking Ahead
There are so many uncertainties ahead, and as Southampton Music Hub charts out a plan for returning in September, the challenges ahead feel huge. Not least of all because we know of the huge emotional burden that has been placed on the city’s young musicians over these past months, being separated from the friends and musical communities they love.
Nights like Mayflower Theatre in March, and the incredible response of the past few months, serve as a reminder of what can be achieved when people come together and unlock the passion, creativity and resilience of the city’s young people and communities.
