Orchestra helps schoolkids prepare for music exams

Press release:

Key Stage 4 pupils throughout South West England will have access to specially-recorded performances by musicians from Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra to support their GCSE Music studies this spring.

The project, which is supported by the Cornwall Music Education Hub, is presented by BSO Associate Musician Patrick Bailey, who unpicks the 5 GCSE ‘set works’:

Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto in A (finale);

Kodály’s Intermezzo from Hary Janos;

music from The Chinese Room’s award-winning Little Orpheus video game;

Schwartz’s Defying Gravity;

and a choice of JS Bach’s Orchestral Suite No.2 (finale) or Brandenburg Concerto No.5 (finale).

The second part of the concert features a composition specially written by Patrick Bailey for the pupils and focussed on ideas schools have submitted, based on rhythm, harmony and melody.

The BSO’s pop-up digital studio — which has enabled the Orchestra to livestream full symphonic concerts around the globe during lockdown — was used to record the performances for thousands of pupils throughout the South West, accessing the world-class professional ensemble from their home or classroom.