The LMP aims to cater for any request from a primary school, whether it's an hour-long concert demonstration by a few LMP musicians to the whole school, talking about their instruments and classical music, or a composition workshop over a few days to inspire young people to be creative and get involved in performing. Our musicians are highly experienced in working in schools with children of all abilities and backgrounds, and we are open to any suggestions of collaboration or assistance with a music project. Please contact deborah@lmp.org for further information.

WORKSHOPS IN SCHOOLS

LMP musicians visit Primary schools and do workshops with the children. They work with them on repertoire they are already learning or completely new pieces, and the workshops often end with an informal concert to parents or peers.

CONCERT DEMONSTRATIONS

LMP musicians visit primary schools that have not had much access to music. They introduce the children to their instruments in a fun and interactive way, showing the children what classical music is all about, and inspiring them to want to learn more.

SCHOOLS CONCERT

The annual Schools Concert is held at Fairfield Halls in Croydon and involves all the children from Croydon and the surrounding areas. Around 1000 junior school children are invited to “meet the orchestra” in a lively and fast moving programme with plenty of opportunity for active participation. The Schools Concert is the highlight of the music education year and introduces children to the joys of classical music.

MUSIC NATION

This is a composition project with two Primary Schools in Croydon. Musically led by animateur Kartik, the LMP and 120 children will create a musical response to Roxanna Panufnik’s Four World Seasons, as part of the 2012 Olympics Music Nation weekend. They will perform their composition in the foyer of Fairfield to parents and the public, on the evening of the LMP concert where Roxanna’s completed piece will have its premiere.

START PROJECT

Following the huge success of the LMP's START project in early 2011, funded by the Prince’s Foundation for Children and the Arts, a second year of the project is planned to take place in 2012.

Working with five primary schools and a special school in Croydon, it begins with the children attending a schools' concert by the LMP at Fairfield Halls in March, followed by workshops with LMP musicians, led by Adam MacKenzie, to create their own compositions. These will then be performed by the children and LMP musicians in the foyer of Fairfield Halls before the LMP concert on 26 April, showing what they have learnt and inspiring them to learn and create more music. Afterwards, everyone is invited to hear the LMP concert.

CASE STUDY: SIDE-BY-SIDE IN SHEPSHED

Led by composer/animateur Fraser Trainer, this project worked with seven primary schools (around 90 children) in Shepshed, Leicestershire, to help them build a new youth orchestra for the area. For one week, Fraser and LMP musicians worked with the children, split into three groups, to write their own piece of music. Fraser also arranged Grieg's In the Hall of the Mountain King to include performers of all ages and abilities.

At the end of the week, at an LMP Family Music Concert in Shepshed hosted by Alasdair Malloy, all the young people played their pieces as part of the concert, and then joined in with the whole LMP for Fraser's arrangement of In the Hall of the Mountain King for a grand finale. It was a huge success, and proved a great way of getting everyone to play together and to inspire the young musicians with what it feels like to be part of a big orchestra.

This project was a collaboration between the LMP, Leicestershire Music Service and Orchestras Live.