LMM Intern Rhuti paints music at Bridge Fest

Posted by Rhuti Carr on 13 August 2010 | 0 Comments

Tags: Bridge Fest, Bridge Project, Community, Intern

Part of my life involves visiting a wide variety of different schools across the country to give workshops with my group, Painting Music. But I can safely say we have never been invited to anything quite as vibrant, exciting and enjoyable as Bridge Fest 2010, held at Jessop Primary School on 9 July. The day opened with a whole school assembly, where everyone got a taste of just what was in store during the day. As well as Painting Music there were brass players from the London Philharmonic Orchestra, singing workshops with the incredibly enthusiastic Jess and Aidan, RCM clarinettists brought in to entertain the nursery children, and, to top it all off, some West African Drumming!...

 ...My group worked all morning with some brilliant Year 1s, who produced some amazing paintings which were later put up in a huge display covering the whole front wall of the hall for everyone to see.  

During the afternoon we, along with a string quartet from the LPO and the West African Drummer Adesose Williams, formed an impromptu (and fairly unusual!) band to accompany the Year 5’s performance of Ain’t No Mountain High Enough and then it was back to a very full, very loud, VERY hot hall for the final concert.

It was great to see everyone perform the amazing variety of things they had been working on all day as well as hearing violinists from Ashmole Primary, who made a guest appearance, and a performance of Song of the Wind given by the Jessop Primary School teachers who have been learning the violin – a firm favourite with the kids!

The whole day ran so smoothly and was enjoyed by everyone - not just the children who took part, but also the workshop leaders, LMM staff, teachers and parents. There was such a strong sense of community that day, built upon the enthusiasm for and enjoyment of music. This really brought the whole experience to life, enabling the day to be such a resounding success. Bring on Bridge Fest 2011!