Ernest Read was passionate about spreading music as widely as possible to children and young people and put on his first concert for schools in 1929. He knew that the length, content and style of a concert needed to reflect the audience and developed an innovative format that many professional symphony orchestras still follow today, with short programmes, accessible introductions to the repertoire and audience participation. The renowned Ernest Read Concerts for Children began in 1945 and sold out for over 50 years.
Today, we devote at least two of our events each year to working with children. As a Camden-based orchestra, our work with children and young people has been focused within the borough for many years and we have worked with the Camden Music Service and the Camden School for Girls on many successful concerts and events.
We have built a strong and lasting relationship with the Camden Music Service who are restricted in their resources and warmly welcome our work and each year we hold two workshops with ensembles managed by the Music Service.
Engagement with music brings many well-documented educational and social benefits to children, especially to children from disadvantaged backgrounds (very relevant in Camden).
We hope that these very positive experiences for the participating children and their parents will encourage them to continue with the children’s extra-curricular music-making. We know from our work with Camden Music that “offering these performing opportunities with inspiring adult players has led to improved attendance, group retention and recruitment.”
We are committed to ensuring that our events with Camden children are accessible to children from lower income families and so our workshops and entry to the informal concerts which end the day are always free for all participants and audience members.
Conducting is shared between our professional Principal Conductor and Assistant Conductor and the conductor for the Camden orchestra, so that the children have exposure to a variety of conductors. We pay the fees for the Camden orchestras’ conductors for the day as we aim to make these events completely cost neutral for the Camden Music Service as we appreciate that their budgets are extremely limited, and we do not want to detract from any of their other plans.
The workshops are carefully planned in conjunction with Camden Music to ensure that the children are playing for an appropriate amount of time and have suitable breaks, and to make sure that there is sufficient variety in what was happening to keep their interest. We provide cake and biscuits and hot chocolate for the children to enjoy during the breaks.
A key part of all of our children’s projects is to ensure that the young musicians feel well supported and able to enjoy both the rehearsal and the performance. To ensure this, each child is assigned an adult buddy who sits next to them and plays from the exact same part to help make it clearer where we were in the music. The buddy is also able to advise on musical issues, answer questions and ensure that they feel supported and able to enjoy the rehearsal and concert experience. We make maximum use of our resources by getting our conductors to provide extra support to children when they are not conducting the orchestra.
We always evaluate the success of each children’s concert with the participants and our partners and we ensure that the findings are applied to future projects. We have received very positive feedback from parents and children:
“What a great idea to involve the children in this musical experience with a full adult orchestra! Please pass on our special thanks for making our son so welcome, and for helping him to feel comfortable playing as part of the orchestra.” (Parent)
“My adult buddy was very helpful when I got lost and with the up and down bows. She was really kind! “(Child performer)
“ACE! The presenter was brilliant The conductor was v engaging. Thoroughly enjoyed myself! First time and it was amazing!” (Child performer)
“I am writing to you today to let you know how exciting, beautiful and inspiring last night’s concert was. My daughter who plays the violin was so happy to be sitting with ERSO players. A wonderful and memorable experience for my daughter and myself!” (Parent)
On the concert day, our priority is to provide the children with an enjoyable and developmental experience. Each child is assigned an adult “buddy” to help them with the music and make sure that any questions or anxieties are addressed so that the children can enjoy their rehearsal and concert experiences.
Each year our children’s events provide opportunities for children from the borough of Camden to be involved in an exciting performance with a full-size symphony orchestra in an out of school setting – an experience that is not readily available to young musicians. Our anticipated outcomes are:
- that the participating children will be encouraged to continue with their extra-curricular music-making. The Camden Music Service reports “We have noticed that offering these performing opportunities with inspiring adult players has led to improved attendance, group retention and recruitment.”
- The young players will gain experience of playing more advanced music than would normally be possible in their orchestra and through sitting side-by-side with ERSO they will; increase their confidence and learn through working with the ERSO players; have the chance to hear how their instruments could sound as they progress and experience what it would be like to play within a larger, more advanced ensemble
Safeguarding is a key part of the planning process for all of our projects with children. All ERSO players are briefed on our safeguarding policies, which we ensure fit with our partner’s safeguarding policies, and we ensure we have at least 2 players with DBS checks in each rehearsal plus others as back-ups. For more information go to: THE ERNEST READ SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA (“ERSO”) SAFEGUARDING POLICY
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