In January 2004, Musicate received funding from the Welsh
Assembly to design and deliver an outreach project for primary
school children in Newtown, Powys. The project was based around the
life of he Newtown-born Industrialist Robert Owen. The project
focus was to create a musical portrait depicting Robert Owen's life
from the early days in Newtown to setting up the first ever primary
school and the co-operative movement.
Throughout the week-long project 200 primary school children had
the opportunity to work with a team of 6 professional musicians on
a variety of themed workshops. Each school was given a different
section of Owen's life to work with. The themes were as
follows:
Early Life in Newton
Moving To London
Manchester Cotton Mill
New Lanark - The Institute for the Reformation of Character
The Geography Classroom
The History Classroom
New Harmony - a settlement in Indiana, USA set up by Robert Owen in
the latter half of his life.
During the Geography Classroom workshops, children had the
opportunity to experience music from a variety of different
countries and cultures including Latin American Samba and Indian
Music. The history classroom scene took the audience on a journey
through musical history from Gregorian chant to Elvis!
During the early life in Newtown workshop, the musicians decided to
take the children for a walk around the Robert Owen museum and
Newtown itself looking at the towns history and listening to local
sounds such as the River Severn rushing through the town
centre.
To coincide with the project, Musicate commissioned Martin Riley to
write a song about Robert Owen's life that everyone involved in the
project could learn and sing at the end of the final performance.
At this point, students from Newtown High School were involved in
the project providing instrumental accompaniment to the New Harmony
song.
The final performance took place in Theatre Hafren, Newtown with
the hall full to capacity!. So much so that parents had to watch
the performance on TV screens in the foyer area!
At the end of the performance all 200 participants were on stage
singing the New Harmony song consisting of a full 200-strong
primary school choir, a small orchestra, rock band and percussion
group (all provided by students of Newtown High School).
'New Harmony' project Newtown, Powys, Mid-Wales February 2004
Artists
Jo Hamilton
Iain Masson
Chris Heighton
Martin Riley
Richard Shrewsbury
Louis Clarke