Education
Since our inception in 2005, a large part of Souza Winds’ work has been in the Education sector. This has been both individually and as a group.
Within Souza Winds we have specialists working with children of all ages and abilities. We have delivered workshops, masterclasses and concerts for people as young as 3 and as old as 93, audience numbers as few as 2 and as many as 160.
Educational institutions we hold positions in include: Chetham’s School of Music, Royal Northern College of Music Junior Department, Xaverian Sixth Form College, Oldham Sixth Form College, Royal School for the Blind Liverpool, Alderley Edge School for Girls, Skipton Girls High School, String Close Nursery, Upton Hall Convent School, Greenfold Special School and Terra Nova.
We have also delivered workshops, participatory performances, masterclasses and school concerts for the following organisations: Live Music Now, Music in Hospitals, Colchester Institute, Education Group, Skipton Music and the Tunnell Trust.
We offer a range of workshops and concerts; these are broken down into more detail below but consist of three main types.
- Assembly style concerts
- Residential Workshops
- GSCE/A Level Composition
Assembly Style Concerts
This has been the most popular option for Primary Schools. The concert will last around 45-55 minutes and will include an introduction to the instruments of the Woodwind family, covering the basic science involved in producing their sound. Their will also be an opportunity for your students to join in with Souza Winds. This is all done within the context of one of our 5 themed concerts.
- Journeys
- Musicals
- History
- Animals
- Sport
Although these are the broad themes for each concert they are adapted depending on whether they are aimed at KS1 or KS2 or even for individual year groups.
Residential Workshops
Our residential workshops are designed to allow your students to create a project and perform their creation. This requires multiple visits from Souza Winds either as a full group or as a duo. The exact nature of this would be discussed as each schools requirements are different. In the past projects have varied from 3 consecutive days/mornings to one day a week for 4 weeks.
The workshops are designed to tie in with the national curriculum and can be built around the topics your school is currently studying.
GSCE/A Level Composition
This project is designed to enable your students to work with a professional ensemble when writing their GCSE, AS or A level compositions. It would consist of three separate visits.
During the first of these, ideally near the start of the school year, we would perform different examples of wind quintet music and show what makes a piece well written regarding the instruments. This would also present your students the opportunity to question us about each instrument and quintets.
The second visit would ideally be about 1 month before the pieces are due to be recorded and submitted. This session enables your students to hear their pieces performed by Souza Winds and subsequently for them to join us in the rehearsal process. They receive immediate feed back on their pieces, what works well, how to improve it and can also hear if what they’ve written is what they are expecting to hear!
The final visit would involve a short play through of each piece leaving a short amount of time for final amendments followed bySouza Winds recording their works. This has been done either as a part of a school concert showcasing your students work or recorded privately.
From feedback from previous schools we have found this amount of feedback and the opportunity to work with an established professional ensemble increases students marks, regardless of initial ability.
In addition to the outlined concerts and masterclasses, we can also offer:
- Pre concert talks
- Masterclasses to University Students
- Ensemble coaching
- Private Tuition
