Summer has been a busy time, full of events aimed at schools and young people, delivered by our Community team. Keep reading to find out what the team have been up to in July and August.

School Stats

As we reach the end of the academic year, we’re excited to report that between September 2022 and July 2023 we have worked directly with 2557 young people through sessions at The Red House and in schools, and with 4441 young people through our Big Sing, Celebration, Aldeburgh Festival schools event and local school partnership programme. This is a total of 6998 young people impacted through our schools work.

Schools at Snape

In July, we welcomed Eyke and Snape Primary Schools to host their summer shows at Snape Maltings. Eyke gave a wonderful recital by their string players and choir in the Britten Studio supported by Wooden Roots, and Snape Primary brought laughs to the Recital Room with Pantastic – a Peter Pan musical.

Red House School Sessions

July was busy with school visits to The Red House and a variety of in-school sessions. Joe visited Sir Robert Hitcham Primary in Debenham to work with the whole school for a Music Through Time Day. Over 180 pupils across the who school took part in a range of classroom activities which explored the history of music and Benjamin Britten.

Joe also visited Limes Academy in Lowestoft to run a Music Through Time Session with 30 pupils from year 4. The pupils explored the history of music dating back to the Anglo Saxon and Vikings and were extremely engaged and worked brilliantly throughout the day.

The Red House was visited by pupils from Nursery, Reception and Year 1 from Orford Primary School. The children participated in a Musical Minibeast session where they learn about Britten, his two insect pieces of music before exploring the gardens for minibeasts and writing their own music inspired by what they saw.

Brittens' former home was also visited by pupils from Year 10, 11 and 12 from Hartismere High School. The pupils explored the Red House site and Archives and worked with Zoe, a local harpist as part of the day.

Art Award - Aldeburgh and Snape Primary Schools

Arts Award takes children and young people on a creative journey, exploring the arts world, discovering their potential as artists, developing leadership skills – and gaining a recognised qualification along the way.

From Aldeburgh Primary, Joe delivered over 40 completed Art Award logbooks from Discover to Bronze Level. From Snape Primary, Joe was pleased to visit a sharing assembly earlier in the month and was delivered 26 completed Art Award logbooks at Explore Level. All pupils have done an amazing job to complete the Art Award this term.

Mini Music Makers

Mini Music Makers is a Friday morning session of fun music and play activities for 0–5-year-olds that takes place at The Red House, Aldeburgh. These sessions, which include singing and creative play, are great for the little ones to learn social skills, turn-taking, sharing and following instructions.

In July alone, we ran 4 Mini Music Makers sessions and have engaged with 240 adults and children. We have worked with guest musicians as well as engaged with the garden, historic spaces and other areas of The Red House site. We are also exited to have been engaging with families at Snape Maltings throughout August as Mini Music Makers has moved location to Snape as part of Summer at Snape.

Music Makers

Our Music Maker sessions are open to children aged 5-7 years old and 8-11 years old. The sessions offer fun warm ups and musical games, and the creation of their own piece of music together with a visiting music artist.

We have recently had two exciting Music Makers session led by Hannabiell, her band and Charly Jolly. They were two very fun and high energy sessions! AYM joined us for the later session (8-11 year olds) where we all took part in some music making together and the AYM's got to share some of the music they had been creating with Hannabiell and her band over the week.

Friday Afternoons

Friday Afternoons is a Britten Pears Arts led singing project connecting teachers and young people with contemporary composers, through creating high quality repertoire, resources and training to encourage challenging and exciting music making experiences for all. The Friday Afternoons vision is for every young person to have access to high quality music experiences through using their voice.

We have begun recording the tracks for our 10 year anniversary release of songs. So far we have had recordings made by Bristol Youth Choir and two local schools – Britannia Primary School and Sir John Leman High School. We have two further recording sessions taking place in August, involving Sale Youth Choir and the National Youth Girls’ Choir.

To find out more and get involved in our Community work, visit the Take Part section of our website.