The Project

Celebration is the result of a unique and productive partnership between the education departments of Aldeburgh Music and Suffolk County Council. 2005 celebrated the eighteenth year of Celebration and saw nearly 1500 pupils aged between 5 and 19 taking to the stage.

"Congratulations on a fantastic week of music for schools. I'm sure you have opened a few eyes and, if not changed lives, given some of them a nudge in an exciting direction!"
(A parent and audience member from Celebration)

7-12 March 2005
Junior, Primary, Middle, Secondary, Upper, Special Needs and Pupil Refrerral Units all joined in this annual event which involved pupils from 49 schools across Suffolk. Each night, seven or eight schools came to perform a variety of acts on tohe stage at Snape Maltings Concert Hall. This year's theme was '18-Eighteen', which gave the groups a starting point for composition and performance. All groups had a rehearsal in the afternoon supported by the professional Concert Hall technical team and stage crew and 12 professional musicians worked alongside the young people during the week. There was a big focus on digital media and the use of technology reflecting the work happening in schools. There were a number of pyramid projects during the week including a small cluster of three small rural schools and a junior and infant school working together.

Each year, Aldeburgh Music supply a project-based teachers' pack to every school in Suffolk, as well as setting up special composition projects. This year they included a composition project with Old Warren House, Lowestoft, which linked with our work at HMP & YOI Warren Hill. In addition, Aldeburgh Education commissioned Scott Stroman to create a piece which resulted in a massed performance each night by those schools performing - 'All Change'.

"As you can tell from the children's pictures and letters, they thoroughly enjoyed themselves and their enthusiasm has rubbed off onto the rest of the pupils - the school has been positively buzzing!"
(A teacher from a primary school)

"Thank you for inviting us. I really appreciated it. I felt really famous in the dressing room. You really made me better at music. Thank you, again."
(A primary school pupil)

"Thank you for making me a star!"
(A primary school pupil)

To view our galleries of selected images from this production, follow the links: Gallery 1 | Gallery 2

Click on the image to download a pdf of our resource pack, 'Eighteen' .

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