Between January and June 2012, The Bridgewater Hall is leading a series of events and performances marking 150 years since the birth of Claude Debussy and acknowledging the influence of fin-de-siècle Paris and of Japanese culture, on his compositions. The Bridgewater Hall is working with Japanese pianist and Debussy specialist Noriko Ogawa, the BBC Philharmonic and the Royal Northern College of Music.
The ‘Reflections on Debussy’ season includes a strong Learning and Participation element, with concerts and workshops aimed at children and families. It also includes two parallel composition projects, both with an emphasis on piano music; a schools project for Key Stage 4, and a higher education project for Key Stage 5 and above.
Year 10 GCSE students from three schools in Greater Manchester have been working with music educator Sarah Atter to create piano-based compositions inspired by Debussy’s music and the Impressionist works of Adolphe Valette at Manchester Art Gallery. Some students have chosen to use these compositions as coursework for their music GCSE, whilst others are using the skills they have learned in future composition projects.
At the end of the project, the finished compositions will be performed as a free mini-concert in the foyers of The Bridgewater Hall on Friday 25 May, from 1.30pm-3.00pm. The young composers will stay for the remainder of the day to meet shamisen and ken-doh performers, talk to artists and facilitators about different careers in the music industry, and attend the evening concert in which Noriko Ogawa, Martin Roscoe and Jonathan Scott will present a programme including Debussy's Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune and Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring.
