Year 5 treated to Birmingham Royal Ballet orchestra masterclass

Ahead of their trip to the Birmingham Hippodrome to see Tchaikovsky’s ballet The Nutcracker at the end of the month, on Thursday afternoon Year 5 had a visit from two musicians from the Royal Ballet Sinfonia, the orchestra who accompany all the Royal Ballet performances. Fiona and Mary are both violinists in the orchestra and, along with the 50-strong orchestra and 60 dancers, they will perform the ballet at over 25 performances in a three-week period before Christmas.

The children were fascinated to hear about life as a professional orchestral musician and could only begin to imagine the hours of practice required to master all the music. They were interested to learn about the size and make-up of the orchestra, in particular the unusual and magical sounding instrument the Celeste, which plays in The Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy. We were then treated to various musical excerpts from the ballet, performed expertly by Mary and Fiona on their violins, which even as a duet sounded most impressive. The children recognised much of what they heard and were quick with their responses, able to name the pieces for the Arabian, Chinese, Spanish and Russian Dances. They already knew the story of the ballet well and were keen to set off on their composition tasks.

In groups of four to six, the children composed from scratch, creating melodies for toys that come to life at midnight under the Christmas tree, just as they do in the story of The Nutcracker. Using a variety of their own instruments and a mixture of tuned and untuned percussion, there was an excellent variety of tonal colours and contrast in each group.   After rehearsing and reviewing their pieces, the groups presented their work to one another.

Squishy Toy group used Ava W’s skill on the flute and a tune on a xylophone, starting with 12 chimes on a triangle for midnight, adding in a tambourine for the ‘squeezes’.  Boom Box group started with Sam M playing a trill on his violin and with a triangle chiming. Using a conductor to keep time, they created lovely dynamics and rests, with bongos providing the rhythmic interest. Toy Car group demonstrated great rhythm, focussing on their percussion, once again using a conductor to control the tempo and show an accelerando with a melody on the xylophone.

James B enjoyed using his trombone in the Jack in the Box group, playing a glissando to represent the toy popping up, reiterated on the xylophone and with more great percussive effects. In the Ironman Suit group, Bella W played a tremolo on her violin to create a fearsome mood, and the strong accents from the bass djembe and other percussion enhanced the well-structured sections. Finally, the Toy Soldiers group created a marching theme on the tambourine, triangle and claves, adding a xylophone motif and ending with the flourish of a glissando on the xylophone.

It was wonderful to see the children so interested, and many wished they could have had longer to compose. The ladies from the Royal Ballet Sinfonia were delighted with the children’s enthusiasm and the results of their team efforts, with Mary commenting, “It’s a real joy to hear and see them working together”. As for the children, the workshop has fuelled their excitement to see the ballet. As they returned to their classrooms, they were overheard saying how glad they were to use their own instruments, how much they had enjoyed making their own music with lots of different themes, beats and instruments, and how much fun they had when conducting the musicians and making them play faster and faster!

We look forward to learning more about the music of The Nutcracker before our visit, and to reporting back once we have seen it!