Portrait of Stafford
Posted on November 5, 2011
At the beginning of November 2011, Children from St Patrick’s Primary School in Stafford worked with a creative team from Manchester Camerata to create new music inspired by their views of living in Stafford. Taking inspiration from Camerata’s 2011/12 season theme of Portraits and as part of the Portraits of Place project, young people from St Patrick’s Catholic Primary School worked with composer Andy Smith, Camerata musicians Trumpeter Helen Quayle and Bassoonist Sarah Nixon, and VJ artist Dave Hulston to create a portrait of Stafford in music, a photographic collage and live visual image mixing.
The result was undoubtedly an amazing audio visual snapshot of the community they live in. The children presented their work at a pre-concert show at the Stafford Gatehouse at the beginning of November.
The children created their own lyrics and composed their own music. They also took their own photographs, making their own booklets reflecting their time on the project. The booklets asked the children to think about their memories and ambitions, mapping out familiar places to them in Stafford.
The photographic collage will stand alongside Portraits from other areas to create a large geographic photographic collage. This will form part of a pre-concert exhibition piece at The Bridgewater Hall, Manchester later in the season.
“When can we do it again?!!!” – Emily Compton, Music Co-ordinator
“We have all gained so much from it” – Emily Compton, Music Co-ordinator
“The Camerata team were amazing and so hard working” – Emily Compton, Music Co-ordinator
Manchester Camerata is excited to have created a new relationship with a school in Stafford with a project which has raised the awareness of Camerata and its learning work in Stafford.