“Last Wednesday – 60 musicians , 150 school children and our conductor, Michael Devlin , assembled for the EUMS annual Education Project. For this project , we aim to introduce school children to the world and sounds of the orchestra and choir. We had Beyoncé , Olly Murs and even Avicii songs arranged for orchestra by some of our very own members and alumni – special thanks to Tim Cais,Vicky Carmichael , Olivia Goodman and Sam Williams for these. And at the front, leading each workshop was myself rather nervously wondering if everything would go to plan and the sessions would be fun for everyone involved. As it turned out , I worried needlessly as you really can’t go too wrong allowing the children to hit a bass drum as loud as they can and conduct an entire orchestra as fast or as slowly as they wanted! We listened to the instruments individually and spoke about how each one was made, its place in the orchestra and what sort of sounds it can make – this brought a lot of laughter when the trombone was demonstrating a glissando! It was great to see both the musicians and children enjoying making music together and will hopefully have encouraged musicians of the future. Thank you to all members who took part and thank you to the children who got involved so enthusiastically!”
Julie Aitken – Community Outreach Manager
“I had a great time at the education project! It was really nice to play something else other than classical music again, and the reactions from the children when they heard what we were going to play were just fantastic! Its really good to see kids interested in music, and especially the trombone… Who doesn’t want to hear glissandos?! Hope to maybe see some of them playing in the orchestra in years to come…?”
Jamie McDonald – Trombone
“I really enjoyed playing in this year’s education project. I loved playing the fun orchestral arrangement of songs the kids would know, and it was really great to see them sing along and have a really fun time too. The kids loved getting involved by trying out all the different percussion instruments, and having a go at conducting. This was a fun filled day which has hopefully inspired the future generation of musicians to get involved with music”
Katy Cavanagh – Oboe
