Music Generation Wicklow teamed up with the Mobile Music Machine quartet in late Spring 2017 to deliver a project in the Dunlavin area which was designed to include schools participating in our vocal programme and our after school strings programme.
We were very keen to work on a project with these young singers and the young musicians in the Dunlavin Strings group so we knew having seen workshops delivered by the Mobile Music Machine quartet that they would be a great partner for our project.
Our idea was to have a performance based experience for the students and offer a unique chance to play or sing on stage with the quartet, children from other schools and a guest singer , Lisa Lambe in front of a large audience.
So how did it work?
Members of the quartet and choral conductor Andrew Synnott visited the groups at their schools on specific days for some weeks before the performance date and worked alongside Music Generation tutors Leslie Dowdall, Victoria Massey, Tracy Nagle and Sinéad Finegan to deliver a chosen repertoire. They had a full rehearsal before the concert with the quartet and then performed on Thursday 11th May in St. Kevin’s Community School, Dunlavin to an audience of just over 250.
Our concert included specific choral classes from schools – Scoil Nioclais Naofa and Jonathan Swift NS, Dunlavin, Scoil Naomh Iosaf Baltinglass and our after school violin group based in Dunlavin. The young violin ensemble played two songs with the quartet. Each school sang songs from their own chosen repertoire separately and then they all sang together as a larger choir.
We were also privileged to have well known singer/songwriter Lisa Lambe as a soloist for the day and Lisa sang some songs with all the children involved too. Our short video below gives a taste of the build up to the concert and how it was so well supported by the local community.
Music Generation Wicklow would like to take this opportunity to thank the school Principals and class teachers involved, our fabulous Music Generation Wicklow tutors and Catherine Burke and Brian Doran from St. Kevins Community College for allowing us to use their school hall and facilities.
Making Music in Dunlavin