January Playback 2025
Happy New Year! Welcome to the January 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. A new year calls for new events, new connections and new ways to make music at the Bridgewater Hall this 2025.
We hope you enjoy reading what we’ve been up to in January.
The L&P Department
Music Makers Meet Up – 8 January
In January our amazing Music Maker leaders met up to discuss plans for the new year. This collaborative discussion resulted in a jam session which then led to the creation of an official Music Makers ‘Hello’ and ‘Goodbye’ song! Be warned…they are very catchy and likely to become a bit of an ear worm! Our Music Maker leaders also sorted through the mountain of materials and instruments that we use in our sessions. They drafted a shopping list of new instruments and materials that would really amplify the sessions which we have since ordered in – such as a relaxing tongue drum and sensory bungee cord!
To find out more about Music Makers click here.
Organ Open Day – 13 & 20 January
Back by popular demand, our Organ Open Days are a chance to get up close to the Hall’s world renowned Marcussen organ and learn more about the mighty instrument from organ builder David Wood. Our Organ Open Days are a chance for those with experience of playing the organ to start their year on a high note and pull out all the stops in a 15-minute slot playing the Hall’s very own organ. Well done to everyone who took part, it was great to see so many people coming together over a love of this amazing instrument!
The Bridgewater Hall Singers – 17 & 24 January
There’s no stopping our fabulous community choir, The Bridgewater Hall Singers, who jumped into their first rehearsal of 2025 by learning two brand new songs. The first song, A Keelie Makolay, is a Ghanian traditional song that sounds beautiful when sung in a round. It’s known as a call and response song, meaning there’s lots of potential to have fun playing around with the dynamics and rhythm. The second song our Singers started to learn was the stunning One Day Like This by Elbow. You might have seen the viral clip of the band creating a mass choir to this song at their concert last year at Co-op Live. Well, the harmonies are sounding just a beautiful in rehearsals – we can’t to hear the song in all its glory when it’s finished!
To find out more about The Bridgewater Hall Singers click here.
Be Hear Now – 26 January
For our first Be Hear Now of the year, we were joined by the lovely Iwan Owen (piano) and Abigail Hammett (viola) from Live Music Now. They led an interactive relaxed concert, which featured many beautiful classical pieces, making this a very calm session (to begin with!). Participants were then invited to test the talented Iwan on his piano skills and conduct him whilst he played the iconic piece, The Entertainer. Let’s just say, some participants really put Iwan to the test – I don’t think I’ve ever seen a piano played so fast!
To find out more about Be Hear Now click here.