Trinity Laban: Children and Young People
In September 2023, I was appointed Project Co-ordinator for the Children and Young People Learning and Participation department at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance, London. I assist in the running of several projects, including their Jazz Hang collaboration with Tomorrow’s Warriors.
Here are some of the programmes I’ll be working on this year. Please do contact me or the team if you would like to be involved or have any ideas for future projects.
Jazz Hang with Tomorrow’s Warriors
It is my second year working on the Jazz Hang project, run in collaboration with Trinity Laban, Tomorrow’s Warriors and Lewisham Music. For my first year working on the project, we were also supported by the London Music Fund.
Jazz Hang is a weekly jazz masterclass that takes place at Lewisham Music’s base. It is run by jazz pianist Dián Gasper. Each week at Lewisham Music, a group of students aged 11-16 learn about jazz, work together on their performance skills and practice jamming together.
As part of the project, there will be four masterclasses hosted at King’s Charles Court, Trinity Laban Conservatoire. The masterclasses feature performances from Trinity Laban jazz students and guest jazz tutors including Tony Kofi, Mark Kavuma, Romarna Campbell, Shirley Tetteh and Diân Gasper. They are open to all young people who want to attend. More information https://www.trinitylaban.ac.uk/take-part/trinity-laban-tomorrows-warriors-present-the-jazz-hang/
Jazz on Tour
Each week on a Thursday from November 2023 – May 2024, Trinity Laban jazz ensembles visited schools across London. Ensembles included Trinity Laban’s Monk Band, Studio Band, Fletcher-Henderson Band and Parker Band.
From Nov 2024 – Mar 2025, we will schools will be able to experience a deeper dive into jazz, by booking the combined package of a concert – with the Trinity Laban Thelonious Monk Band – and a prior practical workshop. The Thelonious Monk Band is led by world-renowned saxophonist Tony Kofi.
The performances are primarily aimed at KS3 students, but they are also appropriate for older KS2 and KS4 audiences. We’re really excited to be visiting ensembles throughout Greenwich, Lewisham, Southwark, Lambeth, Tower Hamlets, Newham and other schools across London!
Applications for Jazz on Tour for the next year are now open.
Next Wave Big Band
“You’ve got to dig it to dig it, you dig”, Thelonious Monk
I’m excited to be working on this amazing new addition to Trinity Laban’s jazz work. It’s a brand-new big band based at Trinity Laban’s KCC campus for those in school years 6-12. The Trinity Laban Next Wave Big Band is an exciting new jazz project for young musicians, that will tackle some of the most popular big band repertoire of the twentieth century. You’ll be performing some great pieces by some of the icons of the big band movement – we’re talking Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Mary Lou Williams and Fletcher Henderson!
Rehearsing weekly at Trinity Laban’s iconic music faculty in Greenwich, you will learn the music together predominantly ‘by ear’, alongside reading charts. We’re after musicians ready to take on the #PlayItByEar challenge.
The band is currently full but please email Ja.Fletcher@trinitylaban.ac.uk if you’re interested in joining the waiting list.
Schools Concerts
We host a series of concerts for schools across the year. We have performed a wide range of works, including featured works on the GCSE and A-Level specification. Recent concerts featured jazz students, string quartets and a rock band.
These are interactive concerts led by experienced presenters that allow students to hear the works they are studying live. We also organise concerts for Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2 too, including a performance of Prokofiev’s 7 (Nov 2023) and performances by Trinity Laban’s opera students (April 2024).
We’ve got some fantastic concerts in the works for this past year, including performances of Dvořák for Key Stage 3, an A-Level concert and many more.
Young Musicians’ Summer School (YMSS)
Each year, we host a summer school at our campus at the Old Royal Naval College. We bring together young people from across the world to work with our team of expert tutors including Binker Golding, Cate Ferris, Laura Rossi, Dele Sosimi, Gawain Hewitt and many others. It’s a fantastic melting pot of young musicians and expert staff.
We had three performance groups: a project orchestra conducted by Matthew Lynch, a creative ensemble led by Aga Serugo-Lugo and our band combos led by James Yarde and Fran Lobo. We finished the week performing at St Alfege Church for an end-of-summer-school concert.
Find out more information here: https://www.trinitylaban.ac.uk/take-part/summer-schools/music-summer-school/young-musicians-summer-school/
Animate Orchestra
Each year, we run a number of Animate Orchestra projects. These are opportunities for young people to meet up with a team of tutors and work collaboratively, whether with dancers, music tech students or even spoken word poets.
In 2023-24, we worked with Trinity Laban’s Centre for Advanced Dancers to work on a joint piece called ‘As Time Goes By’. The film was captured and edited by Becca Hunt.
In May 2024, we also hosted an Animate Local two-day workshop with Lewisham Music. We worked with two local spoken word artists to compose a piece about the local area – all of which was performed from memory!
SuperSonics and The Sessions
SuperSonics is an interactive performance for primary school pupils from all musical departments at Trinity Laban. The Sessions is an interactive performance for secondary school students. SuperSonics brings Trinity Laban students from different departments into local schools. The Sessions is an opportunity for students from Trinity Laban’s popular music programme to go into secondary schools, and do a performance workshop with their students.
This is a great opportunity for schools to hear from Trinity Laban students, and for the participants to find out more about conservatoire life.
More info: https://www.trinitylaban.ac.uk/take-part/for-teachers-schools/supersonics
https://www.trinitylaban.ac.uk/take-part/for-teachers-schools/the-sessions
Musical Theatre Schools Tour
Each year, the Musical Theatre department tours a show in local primary schools. Last year, we performed Madagascar! The show that is performed in the school hall of the primary school and we visited eight local primary schools. I assist in the organisation of this tour, working with colleagues from the Musical Theatre department to make these schools’ visits a success!
This year’s production is ‘Tracy Beaker’, based on the Jacqueline Wilson book.
For more information on how to apply for your school to host the MT Schools Tour, please visit https://www.trinitylaban.ac.uk/take-part/for-teachers-schools/musical-theatre-schools-tour/
MT Experience Day
I’m thrilled to be working on a Musical Theatre Experience Day with Trinity Laban. Secondary school students aged 14-18 will have the opportunity to perform a song with a live orchestra, engage in workshops and have discussions with current students studying on TL’s Musical Theatre degrees.
This year’s MT Experience Day took place on election day – Thursday 04th July. We had a team of expert staff including Tom Self, Rhiane Drummond, Jody Robinson and Becca Wickes.
For more information about next year’s MT Experience Day, please visit: https://www.trinitylaban.ac.uk/take-part/for-teachers-schools/mt-experience-day/
Battle of the Bands
A competition open to young bands and singer/songwriters for students in years 7-12. It was the competition’s inaugural year, and the standard of each band was amazing!
The winning band was from Sedgehill School. For more information, please read this news article on the Trinity Laban website: https://www.trinitylaban.ac.uk/battle-of-the-bands-at-blackheath-halls/
Hope 4 Justice
The public engagement team in 2022 led a project called ‘Hope 4 Justice’. The single ‘Air’ was released recently.
On 15 Feb, the eleventh anniversary of the death of Lewisham resident Ella Roberta Adoo Kissi Debrah who died aged nine after a fatal asthma attack, Air from the forthcoming Hope 4 Justice EP will be released on all major streaming platforms. Ella was the first person in the world to have air pollution listed as a cause of death on their death certificate. Air is a powerful dedication to Ella, with lyrics written by Mercury Prize nominee ESKA and Young People's Poet Laureate for London Cecilia Knapp, the children’s voices boldly asserting “I’ve got the right to breathe in my own city’s streets.”
In 2022 over 1,000 young people, including students from 27 South London schools took part in Hope 4 Justice, an urgent call to action on the climate emergency highlighting issues such as air quality, ‘throw-away’ culture and housing inequality through compelling performances of music, dance and spoken word. Created and produced by Trinity Laban in collaboration with leading artists and local young people, the socially engaged project was a key part of the Mayor’s London Borough of Culture 2022 celebrations and was performed in Mountsfield Park on Saturday 18 June 2022.
Now, to commemorate the project, five songs composed by Mercury Prize nominated artist ESKA have been recorded at Trinity Laban with John Stainer Community Primary School Choir and students from the Trinity Laban Jazz Department and will be shared as an EP.
Air post-release link to all platforms: https://hope4justice.hearnow.com/
More information about the release can be found here: https://www.trinitylaban.ac.uk/hope-4-justice-ep-calls-for-urgent-action-on-the-climate-emergency/
Hope 4 Justice was created and produced by Trinity Laban for We Are Lewisham and was co-commissioned with The Albany. It was part of a wider programme of climate emergency artworks commissioned for We Are Lewisham, the Mayor’s London Borough of Culture for 2022. Special thanks to ESKA, choreographer Sarah Golding, writer Cecilia Knapp and all the wonderful students, musicians and dancers involved.
