Education

The Monteverdi Ensembles all enjoy taking part in educational work that is often included as part of their other projects. In the past, our educational activities have included school concerts, open rehearsals and interactive multimedia workshops.

Our current main focus is on the Monteverdi Choir Apprentice Scheme, which aims to help talented young singers launch their careers in the world of professional singing. Find out more about the scheme in the "About Us" section.

Training apprentices in educational work

In 2008, participants in our Monteverdi Choir Apprentice scheme were given the opportunity to take part in a “double” educational project – they received some training in planning and delivering school concerts. As part of the Monteverdi ensembles' residency at Spitalfields Music Winter Festival 2008 they devised and performed a concert for 176 children from schools around Tower Hamlets (London).

Read some of their comments below:

Did you enjoy taking part in this project?

“The most enjoyable thing about the experience for me was performing music like the Monteverdi and the Swayne to these primary-school children and seeing them, probably hearing this music for the first time, being totally captivated.”
Lucy Roberts

Which parts of the project worked well, and what do you feel might have been done differently?

“I think involving the children at regular intervals helped the atmosphere of the concert and reassured us that they were enjoying themselves and it was going well.”

Zoe Brown

“Once on stage and having gauged the listening skills and levels of interest amongst the audience, the concert ran fluidly. Using simple props in the Flower Duet also seemed to spark added interest, providing a visual focal point as well as aural.”
Robyn Parton

“In some ways it seemed tough to take into account the unknown aptitude of our audience, so there was a large potential for the educational side of the concert to be pitched below or above their heads - we wanted everything to be clear and interesting but not patronising. By the end of the concert it felt that we had got it right. I think the variety of musical styles, choreography, props and audience participation meant that fifty minutes seemed to fly by.”

Robyn Parton

“I had some doubts along the way as to whether we would be able to relate to the children in the way that was expected but these proved to be unfounded. This actually turned out to be what I felt was one of the best elements of the project.”
Simon Ponsford

“I was slightly cynical about this at first. However, things like having the children join in with the animal noises in the Copland, and singing a round themselves, meant that they were involved in the process rather than simply being spectators. It really brought the concert alive and worked extremely well.”
Lucy Roberts

“It really gave me a massive buzz when I was getting the children to make animal noises and they were so responsive. It made me think that this is something I really would like to do.”
Chloe Morgan

Would you do this again, and what further training may be helpful to take this practice further?”

“Yes, I would do it again, the performance was extremely good fun. To move this area of practice further, it would be helpful to have a session with a musician with experience of programming this type of educational concert.”

Lucy Roberts

“I would try to grasp a better understanding of the schools involved and the way that they teach. With further training or knowledge of the backgrounds of the schools I wonder if we could have established some of the religious education that had already been studied by the children, and incorporated their knowledge into our descriptions of the music.”

Robyn Parton

“The pressure of that environment cannot be re-created and the only thing to do is to face your fears, go out there and do it.”

Susanna Fairbairn

A comment from the audience