Happy New Year! We hope you had a lovely stress-free Christmas and you’re looking forward to a busy 12 months ahead. We’re certainly glad to be back at CCC HQ (despite how chilly it is in here!) and can’t wait to get started on some new and exciting projects for 2018!

First up, we’ll be visiting Additional Support Needs schools in Edinburgh and Glasgow (starting later this month) to provide creative composition workshops in partnership with Drake Music Scotland (DMS).  These sessions have been designed for P7s who are about to move between primary and secondary education, making use of inclusive music technology and classroom instruments.  Changing schools is a major life event, and can be a pretty scary one at that, so in delivering this project, we want to make sure we’re doing as much as we can to support this important transition. Thursa Sanderson OBE, Chief Executive of DMS has remarked that “the transition from primary to secondary school can not only be made more manageable, but can also be celebrated as a positive experience if young people have the chance to express their emotions and ideas through music”, which sums up our aim perfectly! CCC presenters Owen and Olly will visit each participating school with a mini concert later in the Spring and will invite pupils to showcase their new music. We’ll be working with these pupils again in September, once the move has been made to their new secondary school, building towards an incredible opportunity to perform at our Halloween concerts with the RSNO behind them, kicking off our 2018-19 season. For those unable to perform live, their contributions will be filmed/pre-recorded and projected onto a screen above the orchestra, so that they’re as much a part of the performance. Watch this space for updates!

Next on the list is ‘Gypsy Jazz’ – our brand new swingin’ chamber concert that starts in Govanhill, Glasgow on Friday 23rd February and tours to Peebles (Saturday 24th February) and Banchory (Sunday 25th February). CCC host Owen Gunnell is teaming up with award-winning Scottish songstress and fiddler, Seonaid Aitken (winner of Best Vocalist at the 2017 Scottish Jazz Awards) – and her band Rose Room, for an interactive and inspiring introduction to jazz that will have the whole family literally dancing in the aisles! They’ll be showing off sensational solos and transporting audiences around the world, performing high-energy numbers from France to Russia, so why not join us? Clap, sing, get in the groove and experience tap dancing like never before…

To register your interest in the Govanhill performance, please contact us with your name, address and email. 

In March, we’re taking our popular Tartan Tales concert to the Caird Hall in Dundee – the clans of our mighty mini-orchestra are set to take the audience on a musical journey, through the swirling mists of Scottish myths and legends!

Then in May, we take on Prokofiev’s much-loved musical story, Peter and the Wolf in Perth and Stirling. It serves as a fantastic introduction to the instruments of the orchestra, as each character is represented by its own instrument with a fitting theme to match.  Peter is brought to life by the string section, his grandfather by the bassoon, the bird by a flute, the duck by an oboe, the cat by a clarinet, the wolf by three horns and the shooting of the hunters by the timpani. Our musicians can’t wait for this one! Keep an eye out on our website for tickets going on sale in Perth (the performance is part of Perth Festival of the Arts)!

By the time Summer rolls around, we’ll be gearing up for our major ‘Sound Cycle’ project as part of Festival 2018 (which will see a buzz of cultural activity across Glasgow, running alongside the European Championships). We’re absolutely thrilled to be one of 34 arts organisations involved and equally excited to be working with Scottish born talent, composer Tom Harrold. It was on the BBC Proms Extra programme back in 2016, that CCC staff spotted Tom being interviewed and speaking about how CCC first sparked his love of music.  Since then, he told us that “a Children’s Classic Concerts performance can be counted as amongst my earliest musical experiences. I remember vividly going to Glasgow Royal Concert Hall as a youngster and being amazed, bamboozled, and enthralled by the CCC show – it was such a fantastic way of getting a young person involved and interested in music. I can truly say that CCC gave me the bug for music, without which I would not be the composer that I am today…[I’m a] Glasgow-born composer, and this project will engage with many people from different walks of life from my home city, which I feel [will] be extremely special, rewarding, and worthwhile”.  Sound Cycle will fuse music and cycling in highly-imaginative ways including a cutting-edge contemporary  composition by Tom, using bike sounds created by all-age community participants (from the likes of Play on Pedals) and our activity will culminate with two high-profile sport-themed concerts, featuring internationally acclaimed percussionist, Colin Currie,  at The Old Fruitmarket in August. 

So, we’ve got lots to do, better get cracking! We’ll keep you updated as plans develop – in the meantime, make sure you’re signed up to our mailing list for the latest news – just click here!