Joining forces with the Royal Northern College of Music in a unique blend of Science and the Arts
22 students from our Trust recently composed a 2 hour concert, performed by professional musicians at the the Royal Northern College of Music on 9th May. The 25 pieces drew inspiration from a Science workshop, held at the Science and Industry Museum.
This unique fusion of Science and the Arts was a project set out to provide disadvantaged students with real, professional experiences of music and science. Meeting experts in both fields was a fantastic opportunity to inspire and develop their knowledge.
The students learned compositional skills from Dr Zakiya Leeming, a composer at the Royal Northern College of Music. For some, this was the first time ever playing an instrument and none had experience in composition. Over the course of 4 months, every student composed both individual solo pieces, as well as a joint piece within their school for a range of instruments. The 2 hour performance combined contemporary classical pieces and experimental music for guitar, percussion, violin, cello, clarinet and more.
The Science workshop, led by Prof. Paul Klennerman from the University of Oxford's immunology department, taught students about immune memory and the history of vaccinations. On the day of the performance, students visited the University of Manchester's Immunology labs for a last piece of inspiration!
On the night of the performance, students got to join the professionals on stage and perform their group pieces together in front of family, friends, staff and regular RNCM concert-goers!
Dr Zakiya Leeming, RNCM Composer, said:
“The young composers on this project had mostly never composed before – though you certainly wouldn’t know it from the concert! Not only did they gain new musical composition skills, they also discovered the arts can be a vehicle through which to engage with scientific knowledge and a space for important conversations about the role of science in our society .
“The science and history of immunology provides fertile ground for exploration across a range of topics, and the students responded with some very insightful and well-realised works, demonstrating the relevance of this topic to their lived experiences.
“If synthesising new knowledge and skills across two disciplines to produce such creative responses in a short time wasn’t challenging enough, to then perform their original works together with RNCM musicians in front of an audience was truly a remarkable achievement!
“It was an honour to mentor them through this process.”
Professor Paul Klenerman, University of Oxford Immunology Department, said of the project:
“It was an inspiring event – and I was amazed by the students’ immunologically-inspired compositions and performances on the night.”
Sam Mortimer, Director of Science at Co-op Academies Trust, said:
“When I was approached about the project, I was excited by the unusual fusion of arts and science and how this might help both disciplines to resonate more deeply with young people. In this, the project more than delivered; ensuring that they thought deeply and personally about their new knowledge in order to respond to this through their musical compositions.
“I also wanted the project to provide students with very real, professional experiences of science and music - to better understand what these two different fields look like at the very top of their game, and for them to engage with and emulate this themselves. Again, in this regard the project excelled, from visits to university labs and lectures from University of Oxford Professors, to working with professional composers from the Royal Northern College of Music, and hearing them performed in their prestigious Opera Hall.
“When I heard the pieces I was really impressed by how creative the students had been in interpreting the science, and how they were able to join the professional musicians to perform their group pieces. A lot of that is thanks to the expert and generous support of Dr Zakiya Leeming in developing their compositions, and the inspirational scientific and historic input from Professor Paul Klennerman and Dr Rachel Hindmarsh.
“The students were a real credit to Co-op Academies Trust, their schools and the project. I’m particularly proud that the students involved come from a broad range of backgrounds and interests, with many never having played a musical instrument before.
All of them rose to, met and exceeded the challenge before them!”
