&Piano delivers its first Schools Performance Tour around Kirklees & Calderdale

Thanks to the generous support of the Liz & Terry Bramall Foundation, &Piano delivered it’s very first Schools Performance Tour around Huddersfield and Halifax, presenting secondary school students with the opportunity to listen to live classical music performed by locally based professional musicians actively working in the industry.

This project is the start of what we hope will be an annual opportunity for schools across the region, giving young people the opportunity to be introduced to classical music and encourage them to explore the wealth of amazing music out there, amongst other forms and styles of music they might regularly listen to. We also use the opportunity to promote the many benefits of listening to classical music for students’ wellbeing, for example: as a tool for mindfulness, an opportunity to focus and switch off from an increasingly busy and complicated world, and great music to listen to when studying.

Featuring Violinist Tom Greed (Opera North, Avenue Ensemble) and Mezzo Soprano Morgana Jones (recent winner of the Frederick Cox and Strauss Prize at the RNCM, currently performing at Welsh National Opera and Buxton International Festival), they performed music by Bach, Brahms, Rossini, Strauss and Rebecca Clarke and others. Throughout the performance the performers gave students the opportunity to respond to the music, asking them questions about how it made them feel, or what they found interesting to listen to or observe.

Over the past week we visited schools including Salendine Nook High School, Colne Valley Academy & Newsome Academy in Kirklees, and Brighouse High School & Park Lane Academy in Calderdale, performing to 500 secondary school students between the age of 13-18. We were thrilled that all the students we performed to listened really attentively and engaged with the music we performed. As one teacher told our artists at the end of one of our performances “This is without a doubt the first time some of our students will have heard this kind of music”