A Rural Outreach

December rehearsal evaluation We fit in plenty of rehearsals at the beginning of term leading up to a chamber concert, and had enough repertoire for a 25 minute performance slot. This was a success and we recorded ourselves and reviewed it to make improvements for next time. However, since then we have all been extremely busy and it’s been very difficult to fit in rehearsals. We have had very productive rehearsals and work really well together as an ensemble. Next term, we need to; ·         Arrange rehearsals further in advance to ensure we all prioritise them. ·         Do a mock performance on 2 nd February - hopefully having another goal will motivate us to rehearse together more often. ·         Organise coaching with a brass teacher. ·         Arrange more repertoire to have ready for rehearsals in January. February rehearsa...

In light of everything we’ve learned and achieved through this project, we’d love to continue and create another experience just like it, taking into account the issues raised in our evaluation! Having seen and spoken to some members of the local community recently, the nearby village of Cundall would love to have a similar performance in their local church in June or July this year. We are delighted and look forward to see what difference this may make to people in the community. There are a few things to consider of course; the venue is less accessible due to a long, muddy driveway, our expenses would need to be covered and ideally we’d like to make a small profit – perhaps the increase in ticket price would cover this. Cundall Church, hidden behind the trees Cundall is a more wealthy area than Kirby Hill, and therefore residents are likely to have more musical exposure as they can afford to attend concerts. There is also a school with a strong music department in the village...

Following the concert itself, we had short feedback forms to be filled out. Of the 55 audience members, 30 responded on a form - that’s a 54.55% response rate, meaning we heard from more than half of the audience! From this we found out that 2/3 people only occasionally attend concerts, more than half were more likely to attend another local concert and most people (27/30) would come to another concert by Rose Brass Trio! This WordCloud depicts the popularity of comments that were made on the feedback forms. Words that occurred most appear in the largest font. We made this so we could see clearly the data received and analyse it effectively. In addition, Anna, Freya and I spoke to people after the concert, receiving some lovely comments including one lady in her eighties saying she would go home and dust off the keyboard for the first time since her husband died because we had played “Fur Elise”, a tune she used to love playing on the piano. This was really special and highl...

Travelling on the train to North Yorkshire All the travel went according to plan and we arrived, set up and had a small rehearsal and started the concert on time at 5pm! We were pleased to have around 55 members in the audience, most of which fitting our broader target audience. In preparing the posters and other publicity, I decided to name the event "Brassical Class" as a fun play on words and to catch the reader's attention. The performance space was a little smaller than anticipated so we’re glad we arrived early to sort out how we would sit, but fortunately the decision to take a trio rather than a brass quintet played in our favour. Arrived at the venue! Phil Wilby came to the sound check and listened to us, ensuring we had a good balance of sound from around the church. He had prepared 3 fairly short organ pieces which provided a welcome break to us and something different the audience appreciated listening to. His choice of pieces were to show off ...

Rehearsal set-up As a regular chamber musician, I generally like to rehearse as an ensemble at least 2 hours a week. Until July 2017, most of my chamber experience was with brass quintet or dectet so starting up Rose Brass Trio highlighted some new challenges. The most obvious of these is that due to the reduced number of musicians in the group, each individual is playing almost constantly in order to fill out the texture. There is very little opportunity to rest and therefore stamina becomes an issue because we all tire much faster!  Rehearsing in 123 In September we tried a mixture of 1 and 2 hour rehearsals to see what would work best. In terms of stamina, 1 hour was the most realistic. However, when you factor in set-up and time talking about the pieces and musical desires, it can be difficult to get much done before needing to pack away again! As we all found we were very busy particularly towards the end of the autumn term, 1 hour rehearsals were easier to fit in ...

In order to put on a concert in a rural area these are the things I had to consider and start organising; ·        Venue ·        Travel ·        Accommodation ·        Publicity ·        Target audience ·        Size of ensemble Through my own personal connections, I was able to book the village church in Kirby Hill for free. I contacted the Vicar, who, in a meeting with the church committee, found a number of dates on which the church would be available and following consultation with the trio, we settled on Saturday 17 th February 2018 at 5pm. Travel would be by train to the nearest station, Cattal, from which my parents kindly offered to pick us up and host us for the night in their house for free. This kept the expenses of our visit considerably low as we only had to pay for train far...

The initial idea for a rural outreach project came from my love of the countryside and music alike and a desire to share some of the incredible musical opportunities I have experienced in London. Since moving here I’ve been amazed at the number of concerts available that are accessible and free and it made me wonder why no-one does the same thing in rural areas. Is it the lack of “professional exposure” it brings the performers? Or the difficulty in accessing lesser-populated areas? Or maybe people won’t enjoy it as much because “they” are different to “us” city/cultured folk? Or perhaps they simply can’t afford to have many musical performances because there’s no funding for it in rural areas. I was interested to find out if any of these ideas might be true and investigate the potential need for musical work to be done in rural areas. Humans have been involved in making music for thousands of years, it's only recently that we seem to have segregated between the privileged and ...