Shrewsbury School Concert Party
Our group of volunteer musicians (singers & instrumentalists from our pupils), takes live music performance to parts of the community that would otherwise have little or no access to live music performance. This is usually to Care homes, Primary Schools, hospitals etc.
Aims
We aim to take live music to the community to increase well-being amongst the audience and to encourage students to work independently to develop and deliver appealing and engaging programmes of performance to achieve this.
Background
Our Concert Party came about through the desire to develop a music based outreach activity on a Thursday afternoon and our former Director of Music's contact with Dr Jane Povey led to the initial input into Creative Inspiration Shropshire. This is a social prescribing organisation aiming to develop collective well-being and resilience in Shropshire through Creative Arts.
Resources
Concert Party is led by our singing teacher with the additional addition of the Director of Music, on occasion, to accompany. The students are encouraged to take the lead, however.
Students take their own instruments, and the school provide an amplifier, keyboard and minibus to and from events.
Impact
Success can be measured by the immediate response of the audience and staff at venues and as regular requests to return and the growing sense of confidence and empathy which develops each year within the cohort.
The 2018 Concert Party developed such a rapport with a particular group of residents at one care home that, when a particular resident passed away, having no other family other than the care home staff, three of the Lower Sixth girls gave up their afternoons to go and sing his favourite songs at the wake, organised by the local church and the care home.
Pupil Involvement
Between 7 and 16 students are involved with Concert Party on a weekly basis on Thursday afternoons from 2-4 pm (perhaps longer, depending on the location). Pupils are usually from our 5th and 6th forms.
Age range of our partners is from 5 to 95 years! and we usually perform in front of an audience of between 15 and 40.
On Field Day, we host an afternoon Tea Party at School when we invite 100+ elderly local residents, and primary school guests, in for music, song and afternoon tea. This also provides an opportunity to socialise and make new friends. Our Cooking Club spends the morning and preceding weeks making cakes for the guests to enjoy.
Frequency
2022-23 is the seventh year of this activity.
We run it weekly in the Winter and Spring Terms and three times in Summer Term.
This is a popular activity with our pupils and we will continue this into the future.