Fun for all the family

Our family programme provided more opportunities to welcome visitors into our world-class concert venue. We were off on our travels with Stoller Story Sounds in May, taking 74 children on a musical trip around the globe in search of Helena the Horse’s perfect holiday. Our team then had an adventure of their own, taking Leo the Lion and a brand-new character to Lake District Music’s Summer Festival. We loved introducing Stoller Story Sounds to new audiences beyond Manchester, and we can’t wait to introduce our new character to our Stoller Hall families this September! Look out on our social media for any clues as to who this mysterious new character might be…

We went on our final journey of the season with Mini Music Adventures in June, following Assipattle on his quest to defeat the Stoor Worm, a Scottish folklore monster. Venturing across the Orkney Isles, our mini explorers listened to new music inspired by traditional Scottish melodies composed by Scottish singer and Clarsach player Anna McLuckie. Guided by storyteller Faz Shah, our adventurers helped Anna and students from Chetham’s School of Music piece together a final song to defeat the terrifying sea monster! Join us in November for our next adventure exploring Kenya and its traditional Luo folklore, accompanied by musician Rapasa Nyatrapasa Otieno.

 

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An introduction to opera

In July, Creative Engagement were thrilled to facilitate two local primary schools experiencing opera for the first time. Chetham’s School of Music presented its first fully staged opera, Ravel’s L’Enfant et les sortilèges, which was performed entirely in French by Chetham’s students! We worked closely with the opera’s creative team to curate and deliver an exciting workshop day including a special viewing of the dress rehearsal. The children also got the rare experience to learn all about the production and creation of the opera by speaking directly to the director, set designer and conductor.

While the production was completely in French, our workshops exploring the characters and the story and wrap-around Q&A enriched the children’s viewing experience, allowing them to focus on the finer details of the production such as the costumes, the staging and the choreography. One young audience member said:

“I know a tiny bit of French, only how to say my name and say where I study or where I live. But I thought it was quite nice because it made it more meaningful and you noticed more details because you weren’t focusing on the words. It was more like the sound and what was going on around it, the dancing and the acting.”

Lara Booth teaching schoolchildren about designing sets for opera

The unique opportunity of seeing a French opera brought to life on stage made a lasting impression on the schoolchildren who came to view it. One teacher said:

“It’s something that children wouldn’t normally be exposed to at all. In fact, you can probably tell from some of the questions they were asking none of them have ever been to an opera! So, to come in and to be exposed to the choreography, the singing, the musicianship and everything, has been just amazing for them.”

Events for our whole community

Over the May half-term and summer holiday, we continued our Make Some Noise programme in partnership with Manchester-based children’s charity Wood Street Mission. We welcomed a further 60 young people from Salford and enjoyed three fun-filled days of music-making, learning, and creating. We celebrated the end of the workshops with every participant performing the music they had created together in a final showcase. And as a Make Some Noise first, every participant received a brand-new Make Some Noise t-shirt, featuring a fantastic logo designed by a talented young participant on the programme!

Make Some Noise participants making music in their new t-shirts

Opening the doors to our exciting organisation and welcoming new audiences for the first time has remained a priority, and we loved hosting a public tour in May for members of our community. The day was packed with behind-the-scenes access to our concert halls, school building and Chetham’s Library, in addition to enjoying music from Chetham’s students at a Lunchtime Concert. We even lent a hand to our technical team learning how the magic of Stoller Hall’s extendable stage happens!

Encouraging young people to share their talents with a range of audiences is a huge part of what we do. Across the 2024–25 season, Creative Engagement have supported 151 Chetham’s students across our family programme, community tours, schools projects, and concerts. Our popular Relaxed Lunchtime Concerts alone have encouraged 74 young musicians to learn new skills and share their passion for music with 367 audience members in a friendly and accessible way.

We would like to say a huge thank you to everyone who has supported our 2024–25 events! It’s been our biggest and best year yet, and we are hard at work preparing more exciting opportunities for music making, listening and exploring in preparation for the upcoming 2025–26 season.

Looking ahead

Here’s what you can look forward to this autumn:

• Relaxed Lunchtime Concerts on 1 October, 5 November and 3 December
• Stoller Story Sounds on 27 September and 25 October
• Mini Music Adventures on 29 November

Keep an eye out for these new upcoming opportunities across the new 2025–26 season! Our schools programme is more action-packed than ever, and we can’t wait to bring back our wonderful KS2 online workshops, delivering learning, listening and music-making to your classrooms virtually. New for the 2025–26 academic year, we are now offering school tours of the historic Chetham’s Library, in addition to our music tour packages. To find out more about bringing your school for a visit, please contact joinin@chethams.com

This is just a teaser of everything we have planned! Keep your eyes peeled for many more opportunities to come, and we look forward to welcoming you back, or meeting you for the first time, this autumn.

As a charity, making music fun, affordable, and accessible to the people of Manchester and beyond is at the heart of what we do. However, keeping our projects affordable comes at a cost. Therefore, if you feel able to, we would be very grateful for any donations, no matter how small, which can support our mission to share music with everyone. Find out more here.

To find out more about Creative Engagement, email us at joinin@chetham’s.com or visit chethamsschoolofmusic.com/join-in

Welcoming a wide range of people and sharing our passion for music is at the heart of what we do, and we’ve seen many wonderful events in our venues this term! Our family workshops with Stoller Story Sounds and Mini Music Adventures have been a blast, with new music, playful stories, and interactive fun. March’s Mini Music Adventures transported 128 young adventurers on a musical journey all the way to China – complete with a shadow-puppet performance! Audiences were captivated by storyteller Faz Shah narrating Naya and the Pearl of Life, a tale inspired by Chinese dragon mythology, complete with original live music by Chetham’s alumna Zi Lan Liao and Chetham’s students. The adventure continued with a special shadow-puppet show from our junior students animating the Chinese folktale of Journey to the West, created in collaboration with our partners at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing. We had lots of hands-on fun, with our audience getting to make and use their very own shadow puppets!

This term we have been working hard to welcome new communities through our doors, offering behind-the-scenes tours of Chetham’s for the first time. We took part in the National Lottery Open Week in March, allowing National Lottery Players the free opportunity to explore the School, Library and Stoller Hall, listen to live music, and learn more about our unique arts organisation. In April we also met a fantastic group of students from Burnage Academy and enjoyed a full day of interesting workshops. Led by our professional Marketing, Tech and Creative Engagement staff, the students learned first-hand about different roles within an arts organisation, saw what goes on behind-the-scenes in our venues, listened to live music from our students and got creative! If you would like to take your students for a tour of Chetham’s please get in touch.

Our wonderful Make Some Noise project continued over the February and Easter breaks. We took part in lots of creative music-making with 52 young people from Salford supported by Manchester-based children’s charity Wood Street Mission. Over two exciting fun-filled days, they explored new instruments, wrote their own songs, experimented with Logic in our music tech suite, and formed their own choir for the day. The Make Some Noise choir performed brilliantly for internal staff and parents with an abundance of young members wanting to showcase their talent through solo opportunities.

We’ve continued to present concerts for audiences who may be new to classical music, our venues, or perhaps struggle with typical concert formats. Our Relaxed Lunchtime Concert series welcomed 170 audience members across three events into our friendly Atrium setting. These concerts also encourage our students to learn new skills, such as how relaxed concerts can help create a friendly atmosphere for listeners, and the importance of social interaction with audiences.

This term our KS2 online workshops allowed us to work virtually with 964 external pupils. Led by music teacher Sarah Atter and supported by Chetham’s students, we invited classrooms of children to come together and get involved in music-making and listening. They explored voice and song, percussion, strings, brass and woodwind, with a special opportunity to see and hear traditional Chinese instruments!

As well as inviting audiences into our own venues, we love taking our passion for music out into the world! With the support of the ABO Trust’s Sirens Fund, we worked with 60 Year 5 pupils over 6 weeks at Essa Primary Academy in Bolton. The Sirens Project raised awareness of music by female orchestral composers, and helped children develop creative writing, composition and performance skills. After listening to and learning about The Land by Elizabeth Maconchy, the Essa students created new music inspired by the women in their life, which they performed beautifully for Years 3, 4 and 6, plus staff and parents. We rounded off the Sirens Project with an inspiring performance from Chetham’s Symphony Orchestra, led by our Artistic Director Tom Redmond. The orchestra captured the attention of 550 Essa Primary and Secondary Academy students including the Year 5 group, bringing everyone together to celebrate the work of female composers.

After a dynamic Spring term, we are flying into the Summer with plenty more opportunities for fun and connection through music! Here’s what to look forward to:

Relaxed Lunchtime Concert – 11 June
Mini Music Adventures – in Scotland! – 28 June
Stoller Story Sounds at Windermere Jetty Museum – 3 August
Stoller Story Sounds at Grizedale Visitor Centre – 5 August

We also can’t wait for the return of Make Some Noise across the May half-term and the Summer Holidays, where we’ll get stuck in with percussion and drumming. And as a Creative Engagement first, we are incredibly excited to be taking our family workshop Stoller Story Sounds up to the Lake District to run as part of the Lake District Music’s Summer Festival programme!

We would like to say a huge thank you to everyone who has supported our Spring events, and we can’t wait to see you again this Summer!

From Creative Engagement at Chetham’s School of Music and Stoller Hall.

As a charity, making music fun, affordable, and accessible to the people of Manchester and beyond is at the heart of what we do. However, keeping our projects affordable comes at a cost. Therefore, if you feel able to, we would be very grateful for any donations, no matter how small, which can support our mission to share music with everyone. Find out more here.

 To find out more about Creative Engagement email us at joinin@chetham’s.com or visit chethamsschoolofmusic.com/join-in

Our family programme has taken 621 children and their grown-ups on some wonderful musical adventures. From experiencing the sounds of Sri Lanka with Mini Music Adventures, to meeting Leo the Lion and Helena the Horse, our delightful new Stoller Story Sounds characters, the term was action-packed! Did you know you can relive these musical journeys through our unique Spotify Playlists? Click here to explore.

In September, we premiered new compositions by students from Chetham’s School of Music. Their music responded to artworks by disabled artists from Venture Arts in Manchester, which have been on display in our Haworth Gallery since September. Click here to listen to the new pieces or scan the QR codes on the gallery walls.

In October half-term, young people on free school meals from Manchester and Salford took part in Make Some Noise. Delivered in partnership with Wood Street Mission children’s charity, these one-day holiday workshops promote creative skills and careers, grow young people’s friendship networks, and assist with family childcare provision. Last term, 40 young people from Salford Community Leisure Youth Clubs explored the art of songwriting and learned to beatbox with Faz Shah.

Relaxed Lunchtime Concerts have continued to be a fantastic way to engage with classical music in an informal, neurodivergence-friendly setting. Since October, 141 audience members have listened to our incredible students at Chetham’s performing in these free daytime concerts. We’ve had some exciting firsts, including a double bass ensemble, an oboe quartet, a mini operetta, and our youngest performer yet at only 9 years old!

In December, we welcomed 746 schoolchildren and their teachers from across Greater Manchester to Revolting Rhymes. Students from Chetham’s School of Music were joined by BBC Radio 3 presenter Linton Stephens, who narrated wintery tales in this special Christmas concert. Our Schools Concerts are brilliant at introducing children to orchestral music in a fun and engaging way, all within the beautiful Stoller Hall.

Through our KS2 Online Workshops, we have worked with 3,315 children from 42 primary schools across England. Schools joined us from Greater Manchester and as far away as Westmorland and Furness, North Tyneside, Wolverhampton, Suffolk and Devon to learn about endangered instruments and enjoy making music together.

“This was a really positive and interactive experience for our children. Thank you very much.” Classroom teacher from Bolton

What to look forward to in 2025

Our FREE KS2 Online Workshops for schools resume on 29^th January. To find out more and to sign up, click here.

As a new addition to our schools programme, we are offering tours of Chetham’s School of Music and Stoller Hall. Visiting groups will get a taste of the vibrant life here at Chetham’s – perfect for young people interested in GCSE / BTEC Music, Music Technology or Performing Arts. To find out more and to book a tour, email joinin@chethams.com.

Our next Relaxed Lunchtime Concert is on 5^th February. For more information and to book, click here.

You can book tickets for our family events too:

Stoller Story Sounds with Leo the Lion – 18 January

Stoller Story Sounds with Helena the Horse – 15 February

Mini Music Adventures – in China! – 29 March

Finally, the Creative Engagement team would like to say a massive thank you for your support in 2024! We look forward to seeing you again in 2025.

From Creative Engagement at Chetham’s School of Music and Stoller Hall

As a charity, making music fun, affordable, and accessible to the people of Manchester and beyond is at the heart of what we do. However, keeping our projects affordable comes at a cost. Therefore, if you feel able to, we would be very grateful for any donations, no matter how small, which can support our mission to share music with everyone. Find out more here.

To find out more about Creative Engagement email us at joinin@chetham’s.com or visit https://chethamsschoolofmusic.com/join-in/

The project is a partnership between us (Chetham’s School of Music), and Wood Street Mission, a charity helping children and families living on a low income in Manchester and Salford.

Free workshops will include songwriting, beatboxing, singing, rock band, DJ-ing, and music journalism. They will take place in the world-class facilities of local music venue Stoller Hall, which is part of Chetham’s School of Music.

Experienced professional musicians from across the UK will run the workshops, and trained staff from Wood Street Mission will be on hand to support children’s confidence. The Manchester College will also be involved in some of the sessions, and participants will have the chance to work with their tutors and students.

This project is supported by the Manchester office of national law firm Mills & Reeve as part of their Corporate Social Responsibility fund and it will run for the next three years, keeping children entertained and teaching them valuable new skills.

Vicki Ciaputa, Creative Engagement Manager at Chetham’s:

“We’re thrilled to launch Make Some Noise this summer, bringing young people together to be creative in Stoller Hall. We are incredibly grateful to Mills & Reeve and Wood Street Mission for making this happen, as well as the children at 4CT Youth Club for their time so far in developing the programme.”

Des Lynch, Wood Street Mission:

“The tangible aspect of our work is vital, but we firmly believe that every child deserves to have happy childhood memories and experience activities that due to their personal circumstances, they will not otherwise have. To be able to form partnerships with organisations such as Chetham’s School of Music and Mills & Reeve means that local children will get to enjoy a summer of fun and creativity as well as forming lasting friendships.”

Ben Hardiman, Partner at Mills & Reeve:

“Wood Street Mission is our Manchester office’s charity of the year for 2024. We were absolutely delighted that we were given an opportunity to support this brilliant project with Chetham’s School of Music whose focus is to help and develop young people from families on low incomes in our local community. I cannot wait to see how the project progresses.”

Participants for the Make Some Noise project will be invited to apply through Wood Street Mission.

Terra Musica, meaning ‘music of the world, is a new programme that will take you on a journey through sound and stories. You’ll celebrate the planet’s diversity and learn about different cultures and histories.

Launching the programme this November is Michael Cretu, a composer and musician from Romania, and Faz Shah, a violinist and beatboxer with Pakistani heritage.

Michael and Faz have been hard at work creating their story and we sat down to talk to them about how it’s going and what audiences can expect…

{Michael Cretu}
My name is Michael Cretu, I’m a composer and a double bassist from Romania. I came to Manchester many years ago to study at the Royal Northern College of Music (RNCM). Now, I’m doing work at the RNCM as a visiting Music Director, I have a jazz trio, and I’m the Musical Director of Manchester International Roots Orchestra. I come from a musical family of Roma heritage, which I’m very proud of. We have a long musical tradition dating as far back as the seventeenth century!

[Faz Shah]
I’m Faz Shah, I’m a violinist and beatboxer. I was born and raised in Oldham, Manchester, I have Pakistani heritage, and I’ve done a lot of educational work with young people who are disconnected from live music. I aim to reconnect them with beatboxing, violin, and now with storytelling. I believe I have a unique capacity to bring diverse audiences together in one space. On 19 November, we’re going to be sharing stories with young children and their adults. Michael and I hadn’t decided on the story before we met today, but we’ve mapped out the ideas and structure now and it’s all coming together… Michael will compose the music and I’ll be doing the narrating.

[Michael Cretu]
We started by talking about our upbringing and the places that we come from. I was born in Bucharest, and we lived in the Roma quarter – it was a beautiful place, but our house was quite small and so I could never have a pet. My friends had cats or dogs, but I thought it would be nice to have a little pet piglet! So, this is story of me discovering a pet piglet and how we go on an adventure with this piglet and new friend, Jonny.

[Faz Shah]
This show provides a firsthand experience and insight into gypsy-influenced music and gypsy tradition and stories – you’re not going to have that experience anywhere else. The Roma tradition in the musical world and even further afield is not often recognised or given its due.

[Michael Cretu]
Often the music that you hear from my home is just a bit of romanticised ‘gypsy violin’, without going deep enough to acknowledge the Roma community and culture.

[Faz Shah]
Sharing this music with a young audience is so important. We’ll be doing two types of music in the show, incidental music and composed pieces. We’re all about having fun with music and giving audiences something to join in with, but it’s good to sit, listen and learn as well so we want to have a good balance of both.

The show is forty minutes in its entirety, it will be interactive, with things for the audience to do and join in with. We can’t wait to welcome people and kick off this new programme at The Stoller Hall, which aims to bring people together and build understanding and compassion.

Visit our What’s On page to book tickets.

Creative Engagement at Chetham’s School of Music and The Stoller Hall (a world-class music venue on our grounds) delivers family and community projects and events, adding to the booming arts and culture offer in Manchester city centre right now. The responsibility we feel to share the power of music with the city and its young people is also at the heart of what we teach our students at Chetham’s.

Known as the arts equivalent to the Duke of Edinburgh Award, Arts Award offers a practical and individual course option to students who are passionate, driven and independent, to develop and demonstrate their strengths in leadership, communication and project management. Its ‘hands on’ and student-led approach has offered our students the opportunity to design and deliver their own community arts projects, giving them the chance to promote their ideas on why the arts is valuable, and learn key skills that will set them in great stead for careers in the future.

From negotiating resources and communicating with stakeholders, to creating schedules and arranging transport, student projects have been as varied and individual as the students themselves. Projects have included visiting local primary schools to teach pupils about classical music and instruments, organising creative socials for younger students in school, and supporting other students to learn new skills.

Diversifying the way students can achieve key skills and UCAS points is vital to how we nurture young people. We want to ensure that the music industry of the future benefits from a workforce with a range of experiences and skills, and empowering students to be confident and decisive through qualifications like Arts Award is creating strong, thoughtful leaders.

As well as the courses on offer, we’re also committed to broadening and diversifying the repertoire we teach. Our students come from diverse backgrounds, making the campus a melting pot of different perspectives and ideas, and it’s important that our music choices represent them. Classical music has been almost exclusively white (and male) for such a long time, so we’re commissioning new works including string quartets and piano trios from composers from backgrounds that have historically been underrepresented. The works will enter our curriculum as soon as possible.

It’s an exciting time at Chetham’s School of Music as we find ways to be more inclusive and creative in our teaching to inspire the next generation of musicians and thinkers. More than ever before, our school is a place where everyone can truly be themselves and thrive.