February Playback 2025
Welcome to the February edition of our Bridgewater For All Playback, where we look back at the highlights of the Learning and Participation programme at The Bridgewater Hall for this month. February is famous for all things love, and we’ve had so much fun celebrating relationships old and new this month. It’s been amazing to see so many different groups come together over a love of community and music.
We hope you enjoy reading what we’ve been up to in February.
The L&P Department
Live Music Now, SEND Schools Concert – 4 February
Live Music Now favourites, Ste and David were back at the Hall for another SEND Schools Concert this month. Our SEND Schools Concerts are relaxed, interactive concerts aimed at providing high quality live music to young people with special education needs and their teachers. This month, David taught us all about the history of his drum kit, the names of the different parts and treated us to some classic drum rolls including the 20th Century Fox theme which was a great hit (literally!). Ste performed a medley of his favourite songs from fellow Liverpudlians, The Beatles. The songs went down a treat with the students, as did some classics from Bob Marley and Stevie Wonder. Big thank you to Live Music Now for their support with organising these important concerts.
To find out more about Live Music Now, SEND Schools Concert click here.
Access Seat Measuring – 14 February
Did you know that some rows of seating in the auditorium are different sizes depending on where you sit? Me neither! Not until the L&P Department were tasked with measuring every single seat (yes you read that correctly!) in our 2,355-seater auditorium. In an effort to keep up with best practice in all things access and inclusion, it’s key for our Box Office team to have as much information as possible about our venue to help give our audiences the best experience. Why are some of the seats different sizes you ask? Well, it’s because each row of seating was specifically selected to fit the precise angles of the Hall in order to keep the acoustics world class!
Songs and Scones – 14 February
Polaris Duo absolutely blew us away with a Valentine’s Day Songs and Scones special. Songs and Scones are relaxed concerts, designed for those experiencing social isolation to come together over beautiful music, scones and a cup of tea. The saxophone and harp duo from Live Music Now may seem like an unlikely pairing, but together they performed beautiful renditions of some of the most popular love songs of all time. With classics from musicals such as ‘My Fair Lady’ to tear-jerker ‘Oh Danny Boy’. The duo finished the concert with the stunning ‘Can’t Help Falling in Love’ by Elvis Presley. We had plenty of singing along, the occasional tear, and of course lots of scones.
To find out more about Songs and Scones click here.
Be Hear Now in the Community – 18 February
After the success of last year’s pilot project with adult day service PossAbilities in Rochdale, we’re so excited that this month we were able to take Be Hear Now in the Community to Timperley where will be working with the amazing Trafford Choices. Be Hear Now in the Community is a series of six, monthly music sessions delivered at a day centre for adults with learning disabilities in Greater Manchester. At the end of the six sessions, the group is invited to the Hall for a showcase event. With interactive workshops led by Beth and Alice, each session features a different ensemble from Live Music Now, providing individuals with access to high quality live music. For our first session, we were so lucky to have the amazing harpist, Eflair. Elfair played some absolutely beautiful traditional folk songs found across the British Isles. The group had the opportunity to ask her lots of questions about her life as a musician and find out more about the harp itself. Everyone had a dance in the workshop, played instruments, and had a go at playing Elfair’s beautiful harp.
Led by Beth Bishop and Alice Phelps, each year we work with an adult day service in Greater Manchester to deliver our much loved Be Hear Now workshops to adults with learning disabilities. Participants can enjoy exploring live music, creativity and movement together, inspired by performances from Live Music Now’s professional music ensembles. Working in partnership with Omni Music, participants are invited to the Hall to showcase their musical talents in a relaxed, celebratory showcase.
Assistive Music Technology Training with Omni Music – 20 February
The L&P Department are really excited and proud to be working closely with Omni Music as we look to coordinate the SEND Network. Made up of individuals and organisations working within the world of SEND music provision in Greater Manchester, this network aims to provide support, information, and community. For this network meeting, Omni Music ran an insightful training session on Thumb Jam technology. Accessible on iPhone and iPad, ThumbJam is an app that allows anyone to play any instrument in any style. We learnt how it can be used for those who may have limited mobility, and how inclusive it can be when incorporated into a music session plan. Thanks again to Omni Music for sharing their knowledge with us!
To find out more about Omni Music click here.
Bridgewater Hall Singers – 28 February
February was a very exciting month for us at the Hall as it marked the 10th birthday of our community choir, The Bridgewater Hall Singers. To celebrate we sang happy birthday to ourselves (in perfect harmony of course!) and enjoyed some birthday cake and a good cup of tea. It was great to have the opportunity to mingle with our fellow choir members after the rehearsal and reflect on the past 10 years. As well as singing with Barry Manilow, flash-mobbing in Central Library, and singing on top of a Viaduct, many of our members still remember the very first rehearsal a decade later! A huge thank you goes to all our members for making the choir what it is, and congratulations to our wonderful choir leaders, Alice and Louise from Simply Singing, for all their hard work and love for our fabulous choir.
To find out more about The Bridgewater Wall Singers click here.