Guest blog: supporting the East London School Orchestra’s Festival
- Education
This week’s guest blog is from Wyatt Sinfonia, who we support through our small grants programme. Read on to learn more about their work from Zoë Miara, Artistic Director and Trustee.
Wyatt Sinfonia provide high-standard classical music to the community, through accessible public concerts and successful education projects in London. A grant from KCCF was used to help facilitate the 2025 ‘East London School Orchestras Festival’. The project culminated in a performance at Evolutionary Arts Hackney including performances from primary and secondary school pupils and local music services across Tower Hamlets and Hackney.
To prepare for the event, all pupils were visited in their schools by musicians from Wyatt Sinfonia’s professional orchestra. Wyatt Sinfonia is comprised of a diverse range of young professional musicians, who were able to connect well with the young people across both boroughs.
The time spent in schools helped to prepare pupils for participation in an intense day of rehearsals in February before the final festival performance, as well as boosting participation in school ensembles. One teacher noted that pupils were suddenly looking forward to their orchestra rehearsals when they had previously appeared apathetic. In total, nearly 400 pupils benefited from the workshops in schools, with nearly 200 young people performing at the prestigious venue for the final festival.
The highlight of the festival performance was a new commission, ‘Flight’, co-written by secondary school pupils and professional composer William Donaldson. This was performed by secondary school pupils across several schools, as well as by Wyatt Sinfonia, in a side-by-side collaboration. Pupils were excited at hearing their musical ideas come to life and to be able to perform alongside professional musicians.
The festival showcased musical progression from primary schools to secondary schools, to music services, to professional music-making, giving young people something to aspire to on each step of their musical journey. It aimed to be a positive transition event, to encourage primary school pupils to get involved with music when they move to secondary school in September. Each school also got the opportunity to work on their own repertoire with Wyatt Sinfonia and perform this side-by-side in the festival.
Parents were particularly positive about the accessibility of the event for their neurodivergent young people, enabling them to watch classical music when this would not be possible in other settings.
Pupils commented:
It was so inspiring to watch and play with a professional orchestra, as it helped us see and experience what we can be aiming for with our music journeys. It was also really cool to collaborate with musicians from other schools, learn from their performances and enjoy music-making in a really large ensemble.
I enjoyed being able to play alongside other people that played the French Horn. I also enjoyed the lighting and smoke onstage, it was really cool to be in that situation.
