An extraordinary year for Southampton Music Hub 

As another school year comes to an end, Southampton Music Hub looks back on a year which has been unlike any other.

Mayflower 400

Symphony 400: The Voyage

The year, and our Mayflower 400 journey, began in four primary schools, where composer James Redwood collected musical ideas inspired by the Mayflower story. 

Over the next few months, those ideas inspired a momentous musical voyage for a new orchestra of 100 talented secondary musicians, alongside digital remixes and resources for others to play and create for themselves.

Big Sing: The Journey

Alongside Symphony 400, Southampton Music Hub partnered with Mayflower Theatre to take inspirational songs from their newly commissioned musicals to school children across the city. The songs inspired and motivated hundreds of hours of workshops and rehearsals for young singers.

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Southampton: A Musical Odyssey 

In early March, over 1000 young musicians performed two nights of unforgettable music at the Mayflower Theatre, with a programme of music which included musical performances of all shapes and sizes, including the debuts of Symphony 400: The Voyage and Big Sing: The Journey.

“I was really nervous — I’ve  never done anything like this before — but being with my friends, I was able to get on stage and sing with everybody!” 

— year four pupil from Hollybrook Junior School

Responding to Covid-19

Just a few weeks after the unforgettable events at the Mayflower Theatre — a celebration of the passion, creativity and resilience of the city’s young musicians — the country went into lockdown in response to the coronavirus pandemic, and that same passion, creativity and resilience was shown once again, in the face of unprecedented circumstances. 

In the past few months...

At every stage, young musicians and all those that support them — from their families to music teachers, to hub partners and beyond — have shown incredible resilience, creativity and passion for keeping music playing.

Looking Ahead

There are so many uncertainties ahead, and as Southampton Music Hub charts out a plan for returning in September, the challenges ahead feel huge. Not least of all because we know of the huge emotional burden that has been placed on the city’s young musicians over these past months, being separated from the friends and musical communities they love. 

Nights like Mayflower Theatre in March, and the incredible response of the past few months, serve as a reminder of what can be achieved when people come together and unlock the passion, creativity and resilience of the city’s young people and communities. 

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