Creative Music Project

Adopt-a-Player, the Hallé’s flagship education project enables children to attend a Hallé concert at The Bridgewater Hall and to take part in a creative music project. Generously supported by the Peter Cunningham Memorial Fund and Manchester Airport, the aim of this exciting project is to introduce children to the Hallé as well as one of the UK’s finest music venues.

This term’s project involves pupils from Wythenshawe’s Manchester Enterprise Academy, The Willows Primary, Haveley Hey Community and Peel Hall Primary Schools. Each school has been assigned its own adopted Hallé musician, who visited them to deliver the first workshop. The adopted musician met the children, told them about life in the Hallé, performed on their instrument and answered any questions.

Following this, the pupils visited The Bridgewater Hall to experience the Hallé for themselves, hearing the orchestra play a programme including Prokofiev’s popular Lieutenant Kijé, Suite.

The Hallé’s Education Director, Steve Pickett said of this term’s project: “Many pupils may not have experienced a live concert at The Bridgewater Hall before, so the opportunity to come to a Hallé concert was a very exciting one for them. The students are enjoying getting to know their adopted musicians and learning a lot from them as they continue the project”.

The players are continuing to run creative sessions based on music heard at the concert and the pupils have begun to compose their own pieces of music based on a particular section of Lieutenant Kijé.

After the completion of the workshops a concert was held at the Manchester Enterprise Academy where all four schools shared the music they composed in a performance for their friends and families.