Join students and teachers from Platform One - College of Music to hear performances from bands, young people and learn lots about events, sound, music technology and jobs in the music industry. This will be happening in April - July 2025.
Details of spaces available will come directly from Platform One to your settings so this is one to look out for!
The schools came together to take part in singing workshops, a tour of the house and some Victorian Christmas Crafts topped off by a fantastic performance in the Durbar Room where Queen Victoria would have enjoyed listening to her own children singing. A beautifully decorated Osborne House was a stunning backdrop for the day along with the amazing staff and volunteers from English Heritage who helped the day to run smoothly.
In addition to this students from Carisbrooke College were invited to sing for guests on a tour of the house in the week prior.
“Just wanted to say a big thank you for today. The children had a wonderful time and they just beam after these experiences!”
- Emma Millard Music Lead at Broadlea Primary
"An Audience With..." is Southampton & IOW Music's flagship vehicle to help schools connect the areas of the National Plan for Music Education focused on Music Industry roles with children and young people.
In partnership with IWCEP and Creative Island, we will be delivering workshops on Thursday 5th & Friday 6th February for young people on the Isle of Wight in KS2 & KS3.
These will be hands-on sessions outlining some of the job roles available in the music industry (both technical and performance based) through practical activities and digital video content which will inspire young people to work in the music industry and develop aspirations for the future
Find out more via our hub menu.
Pathways to music industry workshops
In partnership with Isle of Wight Cultural Education Partnership & Creative Island
After the success of our recorder extravaganza at St Catherine’s Church in Ventnor last year as part of Fairest Isle Festival we will be continuing the tradition this year!
Although the festival is not taking place again until 2026 the festival organisers were keen to continue the legacy of this year’s project via the commissioning of a new recorder songbook written by island-native Miriam Monaghan from recorder super-group Palisander.
The music hub will host these digital resources, provide CPD for schools and workshops to introduce the materials and during next term select a venue and date for performance in the spring term.
If your school would like to host this event please do get in touch.
In January and February, the student members of Southampton University Chamber Choir are offering the opportunity for schools to hear them perform in a short assembly and then work with a class or a choir group for a workshop leading to a small performance on the day.
The workshop: 60 minutes, suitable for a class of up to 30 or your choir.
Assembly: 15-20 minutes, including performances from SUCC and children’s performance of material from the workshop.
Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra’s Young Associates Programme is a 7-month paid opportunity for 18-26 year old musicians to gain practical training as a creative music leader in the South West.
Open to: Ages 18 – 26
Deadline: Monday 16 September, 5pm
Interview/Audition Dates: Tuesday 24 / Wednesday 25 September
Location: Poole, Dorset
We’re keen to hear from people who are aged 18-26 and from a background currently underrepresented in the UK’s arts work force including: musicians from lower income backgrounds; of global majority heritage; or, who identify as disabled, D/deaf, or neurodivergent.
The placement will give you paid experience, training and mentoring from some of the sector’s leading practitioners, and you’ll build a great network along the way.
No previous music leading experience is necessary, we’re looking for potential!
Applications are now open, with a deadline of Monday 16 September, 5pm.
Shortlisted applicants will be invited to an interview/audition on Tuesday 24 or Wednesday 25 September in Poole, Dorset.
This will involve an informal interview, a whole group music workshop, and a chance to meet other musicians. Travel expenses will be reimbursed if invited to attend.
Turner Sims have launched The Vibe Collective — an opportunity for 18-25s to join a new group which will work with industry professionals to plan and present gigs and events for young people at Turner Sims, the music venue at University of Southampton.
OperaUpClose in partnership with Chickenshed Theatre and Southampton and Isle of Wight Music Hubs present Peace At Last, an opera for 3 – 5 year olds based on the picture book by Jill Murphy.
The Solent Shanty Sing project continued last week with performances taking place at Weston Shore on Wednesday 14th June and two performances on Friday 16th June
Singing groups from Weston Park Junior School and St Patrick’s Catholic Primary School joined us at Weston Shore on Wednesday 14th with lots of parents and family as we sang the Southampton Sea shanties and songs that were composed with ideas from the children out to the sea.
On Friday 16th at West Quay we set up in front of the walls and ran two workshop performances in the sometimes punishing heat! The afternoon session saw Mount Pleasant Junior School, Freemantle Primary, Highfield Infants and St John’s Primary take part with a large audience sitting in the steps enjoying the performances of shanties from the songbook.
After school we hosting another performance which featured three primary schools from the Hamwic Trust – Wordsworth, Hollybrook and Shirley Infant and Primary schools. The music leads in these schools have been using the whole songbook as a resource for their singing assemblies throughout the year so they had selected some songs from the other regions involved in the commission (Isle of Wight, Hampshire and Portsmouth).
All the groups were all entertained prior to the event by the fantastic Southampton Salty Sea Dogs lead by Pauline McWilliams.
Miranda Boakes-Clark Teacher and Music Lead Shirley & Hollybrook Infants
“The children absolutely LOVED doing it. I think it was really special being down at the city walls and something they’ll always remember ...it’s so lovely to collaborate and make special things happen for our children.”
Friday 23rd June saw the final event of the Solent Shanty Sing Project which has run throughout this academic year in celebration of Year of the Coast 2023 and in partnership between Southampton, Hampshire, Isle of Wight and Portsmouth Music Hubs. This event was particularly special as it was the first time that children from all of the participating music hub areas had come together to sing!
The event took place at Portsmouth Historic Dockyard which was the ideal setting, with it’s rich maritime history and incredible wealth of heritage sites and attractions to visit. 200 children from each hub area (800 in total) were treated to an entire day of visiting the attractions such as HMS Warrior, the Mary Rose Museum and Portsmouth Hub’s specially created treasure trail, before being treated to an incredible display from the Royal Marines Marching Band and a massed sing of the Shanty Songbook.
Musicians from Folk Active, Southampton Salty Sea Dogs, Hampshire Music Hub and the English Folk Dance and Song Society were also present throughout the day providing live music for the children to listen to and enjoy as well as providing live music for them to sing with during their performance.
The children sang all the pieces from the songbook the 4 music hubs jointly commissioned for this project from composer and sound artist Emily Peasgood plus two extra arranged by Chris Ricketts. Each hub area choir had two songs to sing on their own which were shanties originally collected in their regions or newly composed songs based on ideas from workshops the children took part in the Autumn term. All 800 voices joined together for the three joint songs during the programme to a large audience in the square outside the Mary Rose Museum to an audience of parents, families, VIPs and spectators.
Mel Thomas (Teacher St Patrick’s Primary School Southampton)
“….the best event our school choir has had the opportunity to take part in! Thank you for inviting us to be part of such a wonderful event. It has given the children great memories that will stay with them and it has really encouraged their love for singing, music and performing in a choir. The impact the day has had on them was great.”
On Pupil from St Patrick’s said:
“I just don’t know how I’m going to describe to my parents everything I’ve seen and done today!”
Eliza Carthy sat down with FolkActive Youth Ensemble (FAYE) members last night to chat about her musical journey, advice for young musicians and her life as a touring artist.
Eliza is mid way though her sell out ‘Queen of the Whirl’ tour, celebrating 30 years as a professional musician; daughter of Norma Waterson and Martin Carthy she truly is folk music royalty, she is also the president of the English Folk Dance and Song Society.
FAYE is run in partnership by Southamton Music Hub and FolkActive CIC.
FolkActive director Tom Gregory:
“It’s wonderful do be able to use our connections in the folk world to provide opportunities like this for these young musicians. It’s so exciting to see these young people developing not just as instrumentalists, but as artists within the local folk community. We’d like to thank Eliza for her time and passion for the next generation of folk musicians and also Turner Sims for their continuing support for FAYE.”
Find out about Hub partners FolkActive including FAYE and the Southamton Folk Orchestra:
Photographer: Nosa Malcolm. Turner Sims, Southampton.
Wednesday 14 and Thursday 15 September saw the return of the hub’s live music offer to schools in Southampton. A collaboration between Jazz Denmark, Turner Sims and Southampton Music Hub provided schools from across the city the opportunity to watch performances by Sveneborg Kardyebe and RKIDA. Both groups wowed their young audience with an outstanding show of musicianship on both very old and very new musical instruments and technologies.
Sarah Lloyd, Music leader at Kanes Hill said:
It was such an incredible experience and our children left literally buzzing. Being able to bring hear RKDIA was just so fab. The children were absolutely captivated and inspired and had so many brilliant things to say afterwards.”
In a letter they wrote to the performers, the pupils added
‘“It was so good it nearly knocked our socks off. We especially liked the way you improvised. Your passion for music and your instruments was so clear that it has made us want to learn to play the drums and piano (especially the drums). Your talent is out of this world! Those of us that play instruments (just over half of the class) wish we could play as well as you. You also looked like you were really enjoying yourselves, which is cool.”
When it was finished, we were buzzing and most of us clapped so hard that our hands nearly fell off!”
“Overall, this was the best day we have had in year 6 so far and we wish we could watch you perform again. We keep asking our teacher to put the clips we have of you performing on loop!”
“We really are very grateful for the opportunity and are so appreciative that we got to go into such an impressive hall. We hope next year's Year Six will get to go too.”
On Friday 1 July 2022, school children from across Southampton were delighted by performance musician, as well as music and wellbeing educator, Laura Loft. Invited by Southampton Music Hub, Laura and her team performed a live interactive concert version of her fantastic resource Big Emotions at MAST Mayflower Studios.
Big Emotions is a beautiful story book written by Laura which features songs which support children and young people to process and recognise their emotions. Laura has also created a fantastic scheme of work to go with this which covers the national curriculum for music and is suitable for children in Year R, Year 1 and Year 2. Southampton and Isle of Wight Music Hub were so impressed with this resource that we bought this in for our schools (along with some CPD from Laura) to use at the beginning of the academic year with a particular emphasis on health and wellbeing being such an important part of the recovery curriculum post Covid.
The hub has followed up schools’ huge take up of this with the opportunity to come and hear some of the songs performed live with wonderful interactive musical activities sprinkled throughout lead by Laura other musicians. Five schools and around 150 attended the theatre to sing, enjoy and take part in a brilliant workshop performance which focused on; Excitement, Sadness, Fear, Anger and Happiness. The children left with a soothing feather in their hands to help them feel the emotion ‘calm’.
Nia Collins, Programmes and Events Manager for Southampton Music Hub, says:
“Laura is such a brilliant educator and believes so fervently that music and wellbeing are intrinsically linked that she is able to put this across so clearly in the amazing work that she does with children in this area. We have recently been successful in bidding for some additional money from Music Mark to continue this important work with Laura through partnership. Next term we will have a new resource for Years 2, 3 & 4 called Big Dreams which will focus on growth mindset through creative musical activities”
On Saturday 21 May, young musicians from the FolkActive Youth Ensemble (FAYE) wowed audiences in St. Lawrence's Church with two gigs as part of the Winchester MayFest. They performed the entire set from memory, which included some smaller group performances and step dancing, led by the wonderful Jo Harmer.
In between gigs the ensemble got to enjoy the sights and sounds of MayFest, where the streets of Winchester are alive with different types of morris dance, sword dancing, clog dancing and Appalachian dancing.
Ensemble director Chris Nichols says:
“FAYE performed superbly on Saturday. Their joy and enthusiasm in both sets was infectious, and they left both audiences smiling and wanting more. I can't wait to get stuck into our final two sessions in preparation for the showcase gig in July.”
Southampton Music Hub was delighted to partner with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra on the UEFA Women’s EURO 2022 Culture Programme.
In partnership with the Football Association, the Women’s EURO 2022 Culture Programme, will engage fans in a range of musical opportunities and public events celebrating the history, ethos and future of women’s football. Southampton is one of ten local authorities across England that will host a vibrant arts programme as part of the UEFA Women’s EURO 2022 in England this summer – part of an exciting national cultural programme supported by £800,000 funding from Arts Council England, thanks to National Lottery players.
Eight workshops were held across Southampton with a local composer and RPO musicians to create a bespoke Southampton anthem celebrating our local area and women’s football heritage. Workshops took place with a wide range of residents, from a library rhyme time to intergenerational choirs and several schools pupils and their parents. Using musical activities and games, workshops drew out ideas, lyrics and musical themes that will culminate in a new song performed by and for local audiences in match day Fan Zones accompanied by RPO musicians. In total over 500 people contributed their ideas and inspiration. Like the Women’s EURO 2022 Tournament Anthem, resources and recordings will be made available free source to all fans wishing to learn, perform or use these celebratory songs.
Workshop participant Glenda said, ' We were thrilled that we were joined by a past member of Southampton's 1972 cup final winning team. The footballers won the respect of the whole room and the professional musicians’ skills inspired us all. You never know what surprises can come about from a collaboration between music and sport.’.
Lisa Rodio, Director of Community and Education with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra says:
“The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra are delighted to be working with Southampton Council and Southampton Music Hub on this exciting project, engaging so many Southampton residents with music and football. The new anthem for Southampton will be a celebration of the area made with and for local people, and we can’t wait for everyone to hear, learn and join us in performing it this summer when the UEFA Women’s EURO comes to town.”
More to come on this exciting project!
With the new Spring Term, Southampton Music Hub is offering all schools in the city the opportunity to be take part in a huge, diverse range of music workshops, performances and experiences.
Alongside exciting new offers from the Everybody Sing and Digital Native Artists (DNA) programmes, this term’s offer includes:
Taking part in the hub’s MAST Theatre Residency
A concert for Key Stage 1 with Southampton Youth Concert Sinfonia (SYCS)
Proud to Be, History of Hip Hop
And loads more!
On Saturday 2 October, children and their families got to take part in iPad music-making workshops with Southampton Music Hub as part of the Mayflower Studios’ ‘Festival of Loveliness’.
In the workshops, participants used Garageband to create electronic soundscapes inspired by movies and video games. Listen to some of the recordings below:
On Sunday 7 February 2021, at 2pm, Art Asia hosts an online celebration of the community art project, ‘Belonging’.
This free event will feature stories, poems, and the debut of a brand performance of ‘Naya Rasta — Sailing Towards a New Horizon’: a digital collaboration made up of video performances from musicians across the city. Included among the contributions will be iPad performances from Matt Brombley, who lead’s the music hub’s technology provision.
Matt Brombley says:
”Even though recorded alone at home, this was such an exciting project to take part in. I can’t wait to hear the ways other performers have, from their homes, re-imagined and been inspired by the music and the stories Art Asia have shared. To be able to be a part of something with others, to work on something together even though we are apart, is so wonderful.”
Art Asia is delighted to offer online classes in Bollywood, Tabla, Singing, Harmoinum and Bharatnatyam. All classes are run by highly experienced tutors who are international performers in their respective field.
Art Asia are offering four creative ways to explore the Mayflower story:
“The Mayflower Story began with the epic voyage of the pilgrims, in search of the New World and finding their site of belonging. It is a story of persecution, hope and challenges they encounters as they negotiated a new regrouping of communities to call it home. The Mayflower story has a double edge — the pilgrim finding a new home but at the same time displacing the indigenous people and paving the way for colonialism. It is important to recognise this. At a time when we are living through some extraordinary times, not only because of the pandemic but because of inequalities and entrenched racism in society ‘Belonging’ attempts to bring the lives and stories of the new settlers in Southampton.
Art Asia are offering creative responses, including singing, storytelling and craft, and are inviting Southampton’s communities to respond.
On Saturday 7 December, at 11.30am–12.30pm and 2–3pm, John Hansard Gallery will host family-friendly sound and visual performances.
((( On Pa ))), meaning sound wave in Japanese, is the collaboration of musician and inventor ICHI and modern day English folk artist, Rachael Dadd. Their performance as ((( On Pa ))) is a joyful and explorative celebration of sounds from our everyday lives fused with visuals to match.
Suitable for children aged 6-10. The cost of entry is £5 per child (2 children: 1 adult goes free).
