Pirvate correspondance between colleagues involved in the Spitalfields Festival Education Project 

I was somewhat dreading the day ahead of me on arrival at Christ Church on the morning of Thursday 15 June. It struck me quite forcibly that in a few hours’ time nearly 250 children would be charging up and down […] complete with 250 sets of instrument cases, 250 sets of lunch packs and 250 requests to go to the lavatory. To my delight and surprise nothing could be further from the truth. 

Firstly, the organisation [of the event] […] bordered on the brilliant, secondly there was an air of professionalism […] and thirdly the rehearsal (contrary to what I was expecting) sounded rather wonderful. The expectations for the evening performance were, therefore, running pretty high, and as parent after parent (plus brothers, sisters and ad hoc grannies etc.) began to fill the hall it became absolutely certain that we would hear, and see, a truly original concert. […]

The concert began with [a music teacher] giving an open lesson to the younger string players [5 – 8 year olds]. This was a truly fascinating experience as [the music teacher’s] group teaching method involves a highly secret coded language which the children were all fluent in […]. Phrases like ‘I’ll have two cups of tea please’ (meaning two upwards bows) and ‘Aeroplane coming in to land’ (the alternative downward bow). The incredible fact was that, even though these children were playing mostly on open strings, the accuracy of ensemble and intonation (even on open strings 70 children can disagree about what exactly is an open G) was remarkable. There was a delight in this style of teaching, and a great love too […] [and] a great feeling of the players listening to one another that I found quite breathtaking […]. The demonstration lasted for about twenty minutes […]. 

Following this we had a solo performance by a fine teenaged cellist of the Saint-Saens [sic] Allegro Appassionata—she had, of course, been taught using [the method described above]—and we were able to hear the advanced standard the children achieve. The first choral piece was a charming round that, yet again, showed us the emphasis on ‘listening’ […]. The audience eventually, after a quick rehearsal, were roped in too and it was really good fun. 

[…] A lot of the music was devised by the students including a cello quartet playing Theme and variations on the Fawlty Towers music (touch like Boccherini), an archetypal teenage-nobody-understands-me pop song and a show-stopping jazz scat number. 

The advanced students, many of whom travel around Europe for various cultural exchanges, played an extraordinary Swiss (at least I think it was?) work for eight violins which made a great impression on the audience. The complete string section played two movements from one of the Hindemith Suites and a couple of movements from one of the Corelli Concerto Grossi. The string playing that quite overwhelmed me most […] was the final movement of the Beethoven C major string quintet. […] I cannot stress enough how once again the element of the players listening to one another was so apparent, and the first violinist (who I’ve been told is 14) is a star. 

The evening ended with all 250 performers and staff (who incidentally played and sang in all the full force items which was good to see) singing an arrangement of some George Gershwin songs. […] The 5 – 8 year olds also sang in this too—making this combination of sophisticated Gershwin lyrics and young performers a knockout finale. The songs included ‘Fascinating Rhythm’ […] and ‘They can’t take that away from me’. It was no surprise that this was encored in its entirity.