A Voyage Around the Orchestra at The Stoller Hall
Gemma Gibb, Associate Editor
This special family concert aims to satisfy any little and big curiosities there may be about the world of live orchestral music. Families of the North are invited to join the newly formed Stoller Hall Outreach Ensemble and accompanying animateur Sarah Atter to discover how an orchestra actually works and enjoy some glorious live music together in the process.
Through the narrative lens of Wally the Alien, whose spaceship has landed on earth (or more specifically in Chetham’s welcoming new concert hall) get ready to make sense of an unfamiliar environment where people are using pieces of metal and wood to make strange and beautiful sounds. Through Wally’s journey via a “Short Ride in a Fast Machine”, “Night on a Bare Mountain” and back to a galaxy far, far away, discover what an orchestra is, who plays in it, how it works, where it lives and gets its music from, as well as the feeling of what happens when you hear it.
The pieces chosen are part of the BBC’s Ten Pieces initiative which aims to make the world of classical music more accessible to and provoke new creative responses from a new generation of children.
Expect to hear some of the best-loved pieces of orchestral repertoire from a talented ensemble of professional musicians who all have a particular interest in music education and children’s performance.
Although the main concert is aimed at ages 7 and above, we love that more wriggly, smaller, curious kids can meet the players and hear the instruments with free musical activities in the Atrium from 10.15am.
