RE-RITEResourcePack

A digital fusion of orchestral music and communities in Plymouth, Torbay and Cornwall

RE-RITE Resource Pack by John Webb Welcome to RE-RITE! Based on composer Igor Stravinsky’s fantastic ballet score, Rite of Spring, RE-RITE is a large-scale walk-through experience that offers visitors the chance to step inside an orchestra and feel the sensation of being among more than 100 expert musicians, via giant projections, surround sound and interactive stations dotted throughout the installation.

RE-RITE will be housed in a state-of-the-art temporary structure, visiting the following locations respectively:

Armada Way, Plymouth: 29 April - 10 May (10am - 6pm) Torre Abbey Meadow,Torquay: 26 May - 7 June (midday - 8pm) Lemon Quay, Truro: 30 June - 12 July (10am - 6pm)

This resource pack will help you and your group make the most of your visit, ensuring that visitors come away with a unique insight into what it is to be part of a world-class orchestra performing one of the twentieth-century’s most iconic pieces of music.

Contents

Introduction 2

What do visitors think of RE-RITE? 3

You might well have heard us already… 4

What’s an orchestra? 5

Who’s the person at the front? Where’s their instrument? 6

What’s the music I can hear? 7

It caused a riot!? 8

Before the visit 10

During the visit 12

After the visit 13

Resources 15

RE-RITE: question sheet 1 16

RE-RITE: question sheet 2 18

RE-RITE Bingo (1): find the instruments 20

RE-RITE Bingo (2): what are the players doing? 21

The Orchestra – where they normally sit 22

Glossary 23

Appendix 24

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Introduction

You are right in the middle of it – 101 musicians, trumpets, trombones, percussion, flutes, clarinets, tam-tam, drums, and they’re all really going for it. Loud isn’t it?

RE-RITE gives you the chance to experience a professional orchestra from the inside – to hear the music as the players hear it.

It’s a performance of Igor Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring, with each section of the orchestra filmed separately and projected in different areas of the installation structure. It’s a performance unlike anything you will have experienced before.

Instead of sitting attentively just watching and listening, you can:

Move from area to area exploring the orchestra as it plays. Follow your ears! Play along with the percussion section See what the musicians see – keep your eyes on the conductor and follow the music Join the horn section on screen Hear the musicians talk about the piece Change the balance of the whole orchestra at the flick of a switch

This pack serves as an introduction for teachers and community leaders who might bring groups to visit the installation. It contains suggestions for activities and some photocopiable handouts, which you are welcome to use and develop in your own ways.

It is suggested that teachers and community leaders become familiar with the pack, and decide how they will introduce and use the materials in their groups.

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What do visitors think of RE-RITE? RE-RITE (and Universe of Sound, RE-RITE’s companion installation) has travelled all over the world and the UK to great acclaim. People who never thought they were interested in orchestras or classical music found they were fascinated by what they saw and heard. Here are some of the things they said:

“The interaction was amazing; we could have spent all day here really. We were a tad nervous of coming here at first but, in fact, it was so easy. We think it would be great for anyone of any age and I can imagine this sort of idea going from strength to strength”

“An absolute joy! Thought it would be a little intimidating (don’t know about classical music) but it was fun – thoroughly enjoyable and accessible.”

“I enjoyed my visit so much with my school that I came again with my family. I really enjoyed it – thank you” (aged 8)

If your group seems unsure about visiting, please encourage them to see the experience as an exploration: they can move around freely, find the bits which interest them, take part in the interactive elements and stay for as long as they want!

© Philharmonia Orchestra

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© Benjamin Ealovega

You might well have heard us already… As well as giving concerts throughout the world, the Philharmonia Orchestra also regularly records music for film and computer games. The Orchestra has a long history of recording for films going right back to when they were founded in 1945.

Selected films/soundtracks: Iron Man 3 (2013) Thor: The Dark World (2013) Great Expectations (2013) Peter and the Wolf (2006) Resident Evil: Apocalypse (2004) Vanity Fair (2004) Longitude (2000) The Titfield Thunderbolt (1952) The Lavender Hill Mob (1951)

Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949) Hamlet (1948)

Video games have been a more recent development, and the Philharmonia has recorded music for, amongst others:

Harry Potter Series Lord of the Rings: War in the North Dante’s Inferno Command and Conquer Medal of Honour

Watch the video about the orchestra recording the music for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows video game at: philharmonia.co.uk/orchestra/hire/films_and_games Find out more about the orchestra: philharmonia.co.uk/explore/films/104/the_philharmonia_orchestra Find out more about the orchestra’s history at: philharmonia.co.uk/orchestra/history

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What’s an orchestra? An orchestra is a group of musicians playing a variety of instruments. They are very highly trained, having spent years studying to get to a very high standard. They will all have had to practise their instruments several hours a day, and many of them still do!

When they play together they become an extremely sensitive machine, which responds precisely to the movements made by the conductor, who stands in front of them, leading through their actions. A conductor never does exactly the same thing twice, for instance changing speed or volume, and the players respond as if they were one single being, not over 100 individuals!

When playing in an orchestra, the musician is very busy. He or she has to:

Watch and follow the conductor Watch and follow the leader of their section Follow the music so they don’t get lost Count continuously Listen to make sure they’re playing in the right place and are blending their sound

with everyone else Play the notes (some of which can be very tricky indeed!)

The orchestra contains four different groups of instruments, called sections:

Strings: Violins, Violas, Cellos and Double Basses Woodwind: Flutes, Oboes, Clarinets and Bassoons

Brass: Trumpets, French Horns, Trombones and Tuba Percussion: Tambourine, Bass Drum, Timpani (a set of large, pitched drums), Tam-tam,

Triangle, Guiro and Crotales (small pitched bells)

To find out more about the instruments:

philharmonia.co.uk/explore/instruments

To find out more about the players:

philharmonia.co.uk/explore/films/440/philharmonia_players_our_orchestra

You can download the sounds of individual instruments at:

philharmonia.co.uk/explore/make_music

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Who’s the person at the front? Where’s their instrument? This is the conductor. They are in charge of how the music is played, deciding on speeds, volumes and the balance between the various instruments.

All this is communicated through body language and the stick they hold – a baton. Conductors use a baton because it can help them communicate speeds more precisely. The baton is white because it is easy for the players to see.

The conductor you will see in RE-RITE is Esa-Pekka Salonen, from Finland. Most conductors started off playing an instrument before becoming conductors. Esa-Pekka Salonen studied French horn and composition, and is still very active as a composer. His first big break as a conductor came when he stepped in for another conductor at the last moment, without ever having studied the piece he was conducting!

A conducting game This game helps to understand what the conductor does and is suitable for all ages.

All the participants stand, or sit, in a circle. A member of the group is the conductor. They show a ‘hi-ya’ karate chop which everyone must do simultaneously (i.e. not copying the conductor, but simultaneously with them). Everyone says “hi-ya!” when they do the action. Anyone in the group can conduct.

As they play this game the group could think about:

When is it easy to follow the conductor and when is it difficult? What does the conductor do to make it easier or more difficult?

Conductors can think about:

How they can make the group do a gentle or an aggressive ‘hi-ya’? How they can change the volume/speed of the group’s ‘hi-ya’? How can they catch the group out?

To find out more about Esa-Pekka Salonen

philharmonia.co.uk/orchestra/conductors/74/esa-pekka_salonen

esapekkasalonen.com

To find out more about conducting:

philharmonia.co.uk/explore/conducting

Esa-Pekka Salonen, the Philharmonia’s Principal Conductor © Clive Barda

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Above: Igor Stravinsky

What’s the music I can hear? When you visit RE-RITE the music you hear is Igor Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring.

The piece was originally a ballet, a collaboration between:

Composer – Igor Stravinsky

Choreographer – Vaslav Nijinsky Painter – Nichoas Roerich (he had the original

idea for the piece)

They were brought together by Sergei Diaghilev, who commissioned the piece.

At the first performance in Paris, 1913, there was a riot! Stravinsky recalled:

“the first bars of the prelude …. at once provoked derisive laughter. I was disgusted. These demonstrations, at first isolated, soon became general, provoking counter-demonstrations and quickly developing into a terrific uproar.”

Nijinsky, the choreographer stood on a chair and shouted out the beats for the dancers, as they couldn’t hear the orchestra. Stravinsky stormed out of the audience in a terrific rage. However, Diaghilev said it was “just what I wanted!” and it seems he may have had a hand in encouraging the scene by deliberately placing young, radical audience members next to old, conservative ones.

From that night Rite of Spring was a roaring success, and after initially having provoked much debate, it has now become a well-loved piece of orchestral music: far more likely to be heard in the concert hall than as a ballet. It was once considered almost unplayable, but now it is part of the standard repertoire, played by youth orchestras and professional orchestras all over the world. It was even used as part of Disney’s Fantasia (the bit with the dinosaurs) so if you want to listen to it before visiting, try looking it up on YouTube. The piece is still challenging to play (at times in RE-RITE you may spot players counting frantically). Esa-Pekka Salonen, the conductor of RE-RITE, says that in places he pushes the speed to the limits of the players’ ability so they have

“almost enough time to play the notes, but not quite”.

This can create a tremendous energy to the performance which captures the music’s spirit.

To find out more about Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring:

philharmonia.co.uk/explore/films/134/listening_guide_stravinskys_the_rite_of_spring

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It caused a riot!? Yes it did!

It was the subject matter, the choreography, as well as the music to which members of the audience in 1913 objected.

Rite of Spring is not the beautiful spring of lambs and bunnies jumping through the fields, which we might think of today. Instead it is set in pre-history, a time of superstition and ritual sacrifice, and imagines the sort of ceremonies which a tribe might go through to ensure a fruitful springtime – including a human sacrifice as a young girl dances herself to death!

To reflect this, the composer Stravinsky abandoned the usual sophisticated language of music and instead created music of dramatic dissonance, with repetitive, compelling rhythms and clashing sounds, and without big expressive melodies. For instance:

The bassoon solo which opens the piece is very high – creating a sound which no composer had ever used in the orchestra before (and probably making the first player who had to play it incredibly nervous!)

The violins, instead of playing big, soaring melodies, play music which is repetitive and percussive.

Similarly, the choreographer, Nijinsky, opted for angular, ugly movements rather than the refined steps of classical ballet.

The resulting music is dramatic and exciting, and you may have heard some of it before in films and documentaries.

The music falls into 2 main sections:

Part 1: The Adoration of the Earth

Introduction The Augurs of Spring: Dances of the young girls Ritual of abduction Spring rounds Ritual of the two rival tribes

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Procession of the Sage The kiss of the Earth (The Sage) Dance of the Earth

Part 2: The Exalted Sacrifice

Introduction Mystic Circle of the Young Girls Glorification of the Chosen One Evocation of the Ancestors Ritual Action of the Ancestors Sacrificial Dance (The Chosen One)

On the screens in RE-RITE you will notice numbers occasionally appear. These are rehearsal figures which coincide with the numbers you’ll see in the music on the music stand in each room. Using this you can follow the music which the players on screen are playing, and will be able to figure out which of the above sections is being played.

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Before the visit RE-RITE is an absorbing experience in its own right, though to get the most from it visitors have to open their ears and be prepared to lose themselves in the experience!

If you don’t have time to prepare your group for the visit beforehand, encourage them to ask questions during and after the visit, as the exhibition may well stimulate their curiosity! Use this pack as a starting point for answering their questions.

As a minimum, here are a few things to point out to a group before visiting:

The exhibition is open to the public, so please avoid disturbing other visitors who are there

For school groups, the installation works best if the class is split into smaller groups of 5-6 plus an adult. Travelling round in larger groups makes for less interesting experience.

Ask the RE-RITE helpers any questions you may have – they’ll do their best to answer them.

When visitors go round in small groups or as individuals, they each have a different experience. Remember what you saw so you can compare with other members of your group afterwards

Follow your ears!

If you have more time to prepare for the visit, you could:

Use the information on previous pages to describe the installation, and select one of two on-line films to watch

Listen to an extract from Rite of Spring – you can watch a version of it as part of Disney’s Fantasia if you prefer.

Listen to the following sections (all of which can be found on YouTube): o Introduction (part 1): When it gets going, it sounds like primeval swamp! o Augurs of Spring: Often used in as background music in film/TV o Procession of the Sage, The Kiss of the Earth (The Sage), Dance of the

Earth: Imagine a huge procession, the silent Sage steps down to kiss the ground and then all chaos breaks loose!

o Introduction (part 2): This style of music became the blueprint for film music composers writing eerie space music

o Sacrificial Dance: A frenetic dance, during which a young girl dances herself to death!

There are also films of RE-RITE at philharmonia.co.uk/RE-RITE/films

© Oliver Schaper

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Activities to try before your visit

Try the conducting ‘hi-ya’ game in the section Who’s the person at the front?

Extend the ‘hi-ya’ game. Everyone has an instrument (a percussion instrument, or another which they play). The group arranges themselves so that all the people playing the same sort of instrument sit together. They are the orchestra. A conductor is chosen and has to show the orchestra how and when to play, but they’re not allowed to speak! They can explore different actions and see what effect they make. For instance, what actions would make the orchestra:

o Start playing? o Stop playing? o Play loudly? o Play quietly? o Play something wobbly/shaky? o Play something smooth? o Play a short sound? o Make one group play, but no-one else?

Esa-Pekka Salonen, the conductor you see in RE-RITE, says,

“Whatever energy you give, you get back double – it’s an exhilarating feeling getting all that energy from 101 musicians feeling the same thing”.

Any conductor needs to bear this in mind – give it lots of energy!

Try improvising together. The most important skill a musician has is listening – even if they can play incredibly difficult music, if they can’t listen and play together with others, they’re actually not very good musicians. So, to set up some group improvisation, start off giving out a selection of instruments.

o The group forms pairs; one person is A, the other B. B follows A’s playing. A can either play continuously, or leave gaps for B to repeat what A has done. It doesn’t have to be exact playing together, just getting the same sort of speed and dynamics.

o Swap over: A follows B. o Whoever is leading can make a game of it – try catching out the other

person! o Now try two pairs joining together, but instead of appointing a leader,

anyone can lead at any time. Just keep listening to each other and see what happens!

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© Oliver Schaper

During the visit Split your group into smaller groups (5-6 in each). With primary school aged

children each group should have an adult. The installation is open to the public, so please avoid disturbing other visitors who

are there. Follow your ears – if nothing is going on in a room, listen carefully and follow the

sounds! Ask the RE-RITE helpers any questions you may have – they’ll do their best to

answer them.

Try the interactive elements:

Join the conductor on screen Join in with the horn section Follow the music in each room – remember

the rehearsal figures which appear on screen relate to the figures in the music. See if you can follow what the musicians play.

Listen to the audio commentary from the conductor and some of the musicians.

Be in control – change the way the orchestral sounds are mixed together in the control room.

Play along with the orchestra in the percussion room.

Questions and Activities

Create a map of the installation, showing where each instrument is Give out the question sheets at the back of this pack (you can photocopy them if

you like). The first sheet is quite simple, the second more complicated. Both sheets work well as a prompt for discussion in each small group as they visit.

Play RE-RITE bingo (at the back of this pack) o Bingo 1: Instruments o Bingo 2: Things the players do

There are loads more things to see in RE-RITE, so make sure your group has a chance to share their experience with each other. You could prompt a discussion with the following questions:

What did you notice? What was the best bit for you? Did what you see/hear take you by surprise, or was it as you expected? Why? Which player do you think was having the best time in the performance? Which player was busiest? Which player was least busy?

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After the visit Follow up the visit by using this pack to investigate some of the elements the group

may have noticed Watch some of the on-line videos mentioned earlier in the pack Listen to Rite of Spring and look at the videos mentioned throughout the pack Repeat and extend the practical activities in the section Before the visit

Try out these further musical activities:

Creating layers Much of the music in Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring is made of short musical ideas which are repeated over and over again. These are called ostinati. Stravinsky piles layers of different ostinati on top of each other (such as in the section The Procession of the Sage.) This activity uses that technique to make a mad machine!

Everyone stands in a circle, and a volunteer steps into the middle to create a machine-like sound and action – the more crazy and outrageous the better!

The sound is repeated over and over again, very rhythmically and with gaps in between (e.g. in a steady repeated count 1, 2, 3, 4, the sound is made on 1. Numbers 2, 3 and 4 are silent).

One by one each participant adds their own sound/action, joining the machine in the centre of the room until everyone has joined in.

Can the machine slow down and stop?

Can it go crazy, get faster and faster and explode?

What’s the machine for? Does it make anything?

Try the same game could be tried, but this time using percussion instruments.

Irregular Rhythms Probably Stravinsky’s most radical innovation in Rite of Spring is his development of irregular rhythms. Instead of keeping a steady pulse, with melodies and accompaniments moving regularly within it, the number of pulses keep changing in seemingly random order!

Create a regular pulse

For instance, repeat “one, two, three, four” over and over again, being careful to keep the words steady. Now clap whenever you say “one”:

Say: 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4

Clap: X X X X

Now, sometimes take away one of the fours, or count on up to 5 instead, but continue clapping on 1, e.g.:

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© Oliver Schaper

Say: 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 5 1 (etc.)

Clap: X X X X X

Now, count silently in your head. What other sounds could be added to the 2nd, 3rd, 4th or 5th beats?

The group can make up their own irregular music and think of what it might describe (music for a monster perhaps?).

Use words spoken very rhythmically to create an irregular pattern and then add instruments as an accompaniment. For instance:

Dra-gon is com-ing to the town be care - ful he might eat you! (silence) 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 1 2 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 See how the first syllable of ‘careful’ has two beats on it.

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Resources

philharmonia.co.uk

philharmonia.co.uk/explore/instruments

philharmonia.co.uk/explore/make_music

philharmonia.co.uk/explore/films/134/listening_guide_stravinskys_the_rite_of_spring

philharmonia.co.uk/explore/conducting

philharmonia.co.uk/RE-RITE

iorchestra.co.uk

iorchestra.co.uk/musiclab

YouTube – for extracts of Rite of Spring and its use in Disney’s Fantasia

woven-words.co.uk/game a game using orchestral sounds

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RE-RITE: question sheet 1

1. What do you notice about the players and conductor?

2. What unusual instruments can you see?

3. What do the players do when they’re not playing?

4. Do the strings always play with the bow?

5. What instruments are used in the orchestra?

6. The piece was originally a ballet (a dance): what do you think the story behind it is?

7. If this music was a film soundtrack, what would be happening in the film? Why?

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Some answers and discussion ideas:

1.

They seem to be concentrating, and they watch the conductor and their section leader very carefully.

2.

Unusual instruments include the contra-bassoon, the piccolo clarinet and the two Wagner Tubas in the horn section: these are only seen in a short passage during the piece.

3.

Can you see anyone counting, or falling asleep?

4.

You’ll often see them plucking the string – which is called pizzicato.

5.

Can you identify them and put them on the map in the pack? Which section does each instrument belong in: strings, woodwind, brass or percussion?

6.

and 7: Use your imagination to answer these – there’s no right or wrong!

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RE-RITE: question sheet 2 1. How does the conductor give directions to the players?

2. What kind of shapes does the conductor make with his arms (e.g. short and jabbing, long and flowing, etc.)? How do these affect the music?

3. How much does the conductor look at the score? He refers to the score as his ‘teddy bear’ – why do you think this is?

4. Why do you think the conductor uses a baton?

5. Which players are the principals of their section (hint: these are the ones which tend to play the solos in the piece)

6. Which players double other instruments? When do they play them? (e.g. two horn players also play Wagner tubas – can you spot when they do this?)

7. Describe the ways in which the tam-tam (the large gong) is played. Sometimes the player is doing something to it, even when not playing – why?

8. When do the horns play ‘bells up’ and why?

9. How does the leader (the violinist closest to the conductor) move differently from the other string players? Why do you think he does?

10. Can you see any players counting during the piece? Which ones and where?

11. When do the timpani (the drums) play loudly?

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Some answers and discussion ideas:

1. Look out for: Eye contact to show when individuals should be playing Different sizes and speeds of arm movement to show speed and volume

2. Generally, the sorts of movements a conductor uses (jabby, smooth) show the

character of the music – and the musicians reflect these signals in the way they play

3. Rite of Spring is a very complicated piece, and though Esa-Pekka Salonen knows it by heart, he has a score there for security!

4. It’s seen more easily by the musicians

5. The section principal is in charge of their sections of instruments, and the lead first violinist is in charge of the whole string section. They get to play the solos in the piece, and have to be responsible for the sound of everyone in their section (for the string players this include making sure all the bowings – whether everyone is moving their bowing/right arm – are going in the same direction at any particular moment)

6. You’ll have to be eagle-eyed for this!

7. The tam-tam rings when there is a loud sound, so you’ll see the player holding it to stop the sound. Also, it’s played with a metal stick at one point.

8. When the horns lift the bells of their instrument in the air (that’s the bit in which they put their right hand) it’s called Bells Up! It looks impressive as well as making the sound louder.

9. His movements are more exaggerated as he’s leading all the strings – you’ll notice they play with him precisely.

10. Keep an eye out for this!

11. Particularly notice in the final part of the piece. It’s impressive the volume they get from the drums without seemingly making much effort!

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RE-RITE Bingo (1): find the instruments Can you spot the following instruments being played? Not as easy as it seems – some of them aren’t played much during the piece!

Underneath each picture, write down the name of the instrument and the room you found it in.

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RE-RITE Bingo (2): what are the players doing?

Can you spot the following? Co-operate with your friends to find as many as possible!

1. A percussionist having a nap?

Rehearsal figure?

2. Players counting really carefully during the piece?

Which instrument? Rehearsal figure?

3. The tam-tam (big gong) player holding the instrument so it doesn’t make a noise?

Rehearsal figure?

4. The timpani (the drums) playing loudly?

Rehearsal figure?

5. The principal second violin watching the leader really carefully? (The RE-RITE recording day was her first day back from maternity leave – so she’s really thrown in the deep end!)

Rehearsal figure?

6. A player winking at the camera?

Which instrument? Rehearsal figure?

7. The horn players congratulating one of their section for a good solo by shuffling

their feet

Rehearsal figure?

8. Esa-Pekka Salonen giving an enormous ‘hi-ya’ to the whole orchestra

Beginning or end?

9. Anyone looking a bit worried Rehearsal figure?

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The Orchestra – seating plan

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Glossary

Alto flute: A larger instrument than the usual flute playing at a lower pitch and having a breathy quality in its sound. It is not completely straight, but its head bends back on itself 180°

Bass clarinet: A low version of the clarinet. It is larger and rests on the floor.

Bells up!: The horn players raise the bells of their instruments high in the air for a louder sound.

Contra bassoon: A larger and lower bassoon with a very distinctive sound quality.

Cor Anglais: A wind instrument rather like an oboe but with a slightly deeper and mellower sound. It has a distinctive egg shape at the bottom of the instrument.

Desk: Each pair of string players sitting at a single music stand is a desk. They are numbered from the front, nearest the conductor to the back (1st desk, 2nd desk, etc.).

Dynamics: Loud and quiet. In printed music they are graded through p (piano – quiet) and f (forte – loud). The more fs or ps there are the quieter of louder the indication (e.g. ppp is very soft)

Leader: The violinist on the outside of the first desk nearest the conductor. They lead the string sections, indicating exactly when to play.

Orchestra: A collection of musicians playing a selection of string, wind, brass and percussion instruments.

Ostinato: A repeated musical idea, usually quite short.

Piccolo: A smaller version of the flute playing an octave higher. There are also piccolo versions of other instruments (e.g. piccolo clarinet and piccolo trumpet)

Principal: The leader of each instrumental section (e.g. principal horn, principal oboe).

Tempo: The music’s speed

Timpani: Large pitched drums also known as kettle drums. There are nine in Rite of Spring, played by two players

Wagner tubas: Instruments developed in the 19th Century by composer Richard Wagner for use in his operas. They look a bit like small tubas, but slightly curved, and are played by horn players. Two are used in Rite of Spring.

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Appendix

RE-RITE RE-RITE is a ground-breaking, immersive digital installation and a musical experience like no other. Using high resolution video projections onto the walls of a temporary venue in three locations in the South West, RE-RITE creates a life-size virtual orchestra. These projections, together with fun, interactive elements, enable the audience to conduct, play and step inside the orchestra. From playing along with the percussion section to controlling every section of the orchestra from the conductor’s podium, the installation provides a unique insight into what it is to be part of a world-class orchestra performing one of the twentieth-century’s iconic pieces of music, Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring.

Installations:

Armada Way, Plymouth: 29 April - 10 May Torre Abbey Meadow, Torquay: 26 May - 7 June Lemon Quay, Truro: 30 June - 12 July

Further details:

To book your school visit to RE-RITE, please contact your regional iOrchestra Coordinator (see details below). Visit iorchestra.co.uk/re-rite to find out more.

iOrchestra Contact Details

If you have any further questions about the INSET, RE-RITE, or iOrchestra in general, please contact your regional iOrchestra Coordinator:

Plymouth: Gemma Ward (gemma.ward@philharmonia.co.uk / 07943 377 301) Torbay: Laura Forster (laura.forster@philharmonia.co.uk / 07943 376 893) Cornwall: Rachel Caccia (education.assistant@philharmonia.co.uk / 07943 377 239)

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Additional iOrchestra Events

During 2014 and 2015 a very special music project is coming to the South West. Communities in Torbay, Cornwall and Plymouth will join with the Philharmonia Orchestra to present iOrchestra – a huge programme that combines the latest digital technology with live performance in a multi-faceted exploration of music. In addition to RE-RITE, iOrchestra comprises the following elements: MusicLab MusicLab is a new mobile interactive digital installation. Housed in a 13.5m purpose-built trailer, the Philharmonia Orchestra is developing a flexible, pop-up orchestral experience that can reach targeted communities in Devon and Cornwall. Using cutting-edge digital technology and innovative interactive design, MusicLab will offer a series of hands-on musical experiences and interactions, designed to put you in the shoes of a composer, performer, producer and conductor. To find out when MusicLab is in your area, please visit iorchestra.co.uk/music-lab. To book your school visit to MusicLab, please contact your regional iOrchestra Coordinator (details above). Please note that prior booking is essential and space is limited. Orchestra Unwrapped schools concert Orchestra Unwrapped is an educational initiative offered by the Philharmonia Orchestra as part of the iOrchestra project in Plymouth, Torbay and Cornwall. It gives hundreds of primary school children the opportunity to experience live music making in an engaging and exciting way. Providing an accessible introduction to the orchestra and its instruments, Orchestra Unwrapped enables students and teachers to deepen their understanding of classical music whilst having fun.

Monday 12 May 2014, 11:00am Plymouth Guildhall Monday 9 June 2014, 11:00am Princess Theatre, Torquay Monday 14 July 2014, 11:00am Hall for Cornwall

Prior booking for schools concerts is essential and space is limited. For more information or to enquire about places at our schools performances, please contact us the Project Coordinators in each region (see details above). Community Concerts On the final day of each RE-RITE installation in Plymouth (11 May), Torbay (8 June) and Truro (13 July), the full Philharmonia Orchestra presents a 75 minute-long, open air Sunday afternoon concert, situated at the RE-RITE site, in a specially chosen programme to appeal to families and those new to orchestral music.

Sunday 11 May 2014, 5pm: Armada Way Piazza (Plymouth) Sunday 8 June 2014, 5pm: Torre Abbey (Torquay) Sunday 13 July 2014, 5pm: Lemon Quay Piazza (Cornwall)

The concert will be ideal for the families of your students, and is a perfect environment for sharing musical experiences as a family in a friendly environment. Visit iorchestra.co.uk/live to find out more.

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Biographies

John Webb, music education specialist John Webb is a composer and music educator with a wide experience working with community and educational contexts. He has worked on projects for London Philharmonic Orchestra, Academy of St Martins in the Fields, Philharmonia Orchestra, English National Opera, Spitalfields Music, Royal Academy of Music, Operahouse Music Projects, The Stables and Britten Sinfonia. For several years he has led the Wigmore Hall’s Early Years programme, Chamber Tots, and the Philharmonia’s Stepping Stones KS1 Project. Recent projects have included work with the Academy of St Martins in The Fields and Slough music service exploring composition with A level and GCSE students, work with vulnerable adults, dementia sufferers and intergenerational projects, as well as early years and schools-based projects. He has written two operas for children to perform: ‘Lionhunt!’ (for KS1) and ‘The Ballad of Slippery Jack’ (for KS2), commissioned by English National Opera, and in 2012 his piece ‘Nelson’ was performed by Royal Academy of Music musicians and 120 children from Tower Hamlets Primary Schools. Recently his work was shortlisted as part of the Britten Sinfonia’s Opus 2012 prize. He is currently working with the National Theatre on an interactive production for 5 year olds. Find out more at sites.google.com/site/johnwebbcomposer/

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iOrchestra is supported by…

In Plymouth

In Torbay

In Cornwall