This week Cranleigh School’s Chapel reverberated to the sounds of a professional orchestra in a spectacular event featuring the Orpheus Sinfonia and Classic FM presenter and author Zeb Soanes.
Cranleigh Prep pupils were invited to play alongside the Sinfonia’s musicians plus more than sixty pupils from other local schools who had been specially invited. Throughout the day, the Sinfonia team worked with all the young musicians on a brand new piece which they performed together at the end of the day.
For the final concert, with the established Orpheus players alongside their junior counterparts, the orchestra provided the musical accompaniment to Mr Soanes’ children’s story Fred and the Fantastic Tub-Tub, using music to bring to life the characters, settings and dramatic moments.
Mr Soanes said: “It has been great to be at Cranleigh today to perform Fred and the Fantastic Tub-Tub where the children were able to play side-by-side with the musicians of the Orpheus Sinfonia. I believe there’s no better way for them to learn about music than by sitting with a professional and having the chance to ask all the questions you never get the chance to ask during a live concert.
As well as the performance, we’ve been running writing workshops where the pupils have been working on limericks. It’s a fun way to introduce poetry and lyricism and it was brilliant to see how they all approached it. Some took to it with ease while others took their time to find exactly the right rhyme. Every single poem they’ve written has been excellent.”
The music for Fred and the Fantastic Tub-Tub was composed by James Marangone. The event was brought about, in part, by Rosemary Taylor, who is a visiting clarinet teacher at Cranleigh as well as serving as the Orpheus Sinfonia’s Chief Executive. Fred and the Fantastic Tub-Tub has become a staple of Orpheus Sinfonia’s outreach activity and family concert programming.
Richard Saxel, Cranleigh’s Director of Music, said: “With so many pupils fully involved all day and lots of parents and teachers in the audience at the end, we have really shown Cranleigh in its best light. One of the joys of today’s concert was the opportunity for pupils to play music by a living composer, who was on site all day to shape and guide the artistic direction of the performance. Our thanks also go to all of the Sinfonia’s incredible musicians, their conductor Carlo Antinioli and to our own Rosie Taylor for making this a reality.”
