Introduction to Big Band

The ‘Introduction to Big Band’ event was designed to provide an immersive musical experience for 140 visiting students and staff from local schools surrounding Dorchester Abbey. The live concert provided a fascinating walk-through tour of the structure, rhythms and instruments within a big Band, accompanied by fantastic commentary and information from an experienced big band leader. 

 

Aims

The aim of the partnership is to increase musical education and live music performance opportunities for local primary schools around Dorchester Abbey.  The need for this musical initiative was identified from the lack of big band resources and tuition in our local area and the desire to a future generation of musical performers. The critical factors for success were the location and ease of access for all participating schools in the local area. 

The immediate beneficiaries of the event are the participating students and also their accompanying staff who are given the opportunity to develop their own musical knowledge. Members of the local community were also invited to attend, thereby expanding the impact of the event.

Background

The partnership initiative evolved from verbal feedback provided by several local primary schools indicating a lack of musical opportunities outside of the curriculum and a desire to also give an opportunity to students to experience a visit to Dorchester Abbey. A relationship was then developed with Dorchester Abbey staff who kindly agreed to allow use of the space to support the local community schools.

Resources

The permission to use Dorchester Abbey as a performance space was key to this initiative as it allowed schools who would traditionally struggle to travel to our school based events the chance to take part.

Impact

The ‘Introduction to Big Band’ event provided over 140 visiting students and staff with a fascinating walk-through tour of the structure, rhythms and instruments within a big Band, accompanied by fantastic commentary and information from our big band leader. The impact of the activity was measured through qualitative discussions with attending students and staff.

A visiting student Abbey Woods school told us “I really liked the educational purpose, like learning the history of the big band”, and a fellow student described the concert as “… very intriguing and changed my thoughts and perspective on instruments.” 

Pupil Involvement

140 Pupils attended from 4 local state primary schools. The students were an equal mix of genders, aged between 6 and 11. 

Frequency

This was designed as a single event, but due to its success is planned to be carried out again in future years at potentially different venues.