We were delighted to welcome six members of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and two animateurs to NHEHS to lead a composition day with our Symphony Orchestra and five visiting primary schools.

The purpose of the day was to compose a new work, aurally, for performance at the end of the day.

The topic of the piece was inspired by the words and beliefs of Greta Thunberg with a piece that represented climate events such as flooding, fire, islands sinking under the sea and tornados through music. The Symphony Orchestra began the day with small workshops to compose a main theme and once the primary schools arrived, we broke off into to small groups to compose different sections of the new piece. 

The focus and enthusiasm of the students was incredible throughout the process and they came up with some really interesting ideas that were woven into the piece by the members of the Royal Philharmonic.

The final concert was a wonderfully moving event, with over 120 students performing to an appreciative audience.

‘I particularly enjoyed when we did the concert together as I liked to listening all the other compositions and the other peoples ideas. I also enjoyed break time!’ Amy Swift- Year 7 (Symphony Orchestra)

‘I enjoyed working with the younger students to compose our piece about the Amazon fires. I liked how everyone got involved and shared their ideas.’ Evelyn Smethurst- Year 7 (Symphony Orchestra)