[The listening experience is recounted by headteacher at Weavers’ Field Special School Sue Sowerbutts, who attended project sessions and, with a few others connected to the school or project, the performance.]

It has been very good to see and hear how [the children] have responded to [visiting artists Simon Foxley and Julie Spencer] and how they have discovered new ways of creatively expressing feelings. None of them had previously played a cello and I was delighted that several of the children were able to perform their compositions in front of an audience. I don’t know whether you realised what an achievement this was for them—to take the risk of doing this when they would have been very nervous and might have forgotten what they were going to do was a big step forward. 

The fact that they had composed two group songs was also an achievement for children who are generally very self-centred owing to their problems and delayed emotional development.