Partners
Working in partnership
Our partnerships give children in Waltham Forest have the opportunity to hear, work and perform with a range of professional musicians as well as other young people across East London and beyond, in a wide variety of settings.
Here are some of our partners and how we’ve worked together recently:
Barbican Guildhall Creative Learning
Barbican Guildhall Creative Learning aims to provide a range of arts projects to people of all ages, covering a diverse range of styles, genres and disciplines including music making opportunities. They are currently trialing a ‘Creative Schools’ programme in Waltham Forest where pupils experience and take part in a diverse range of arts activities in their school and at the Barbican Centre.
https://www.barbican.org.uk/sites/default/files/documents/2019-11/10%20Years%20in%20Review.pdf
Beatroots
Beatroots delivers high-quality musical programmes in partnership with the community. Beatroots have run Grime workshops with hip-hop/rap artist Lemzi to give young people an introduction to grime and an opportunity to try their hand at lyric writing and MCing.
http://beatroots.org/
Charanga
Charanga provide primary music curriculum, secondary and instrumental music resources for teachers and students in Waltham Forest.
https://charanga.com/site/
Clio’s Company
Clio’s Company work with school and community audiences to develop imaginative performances grown out of careful research of locations and historical events. Through the Walthamstow Notes project, pupils from Waltham Forest have composed and performed music inspired by Tudor and Victorian times as well as exploring music from the 1960’s.
Conductive Music
Conductive Music mix science and music to experiment and invent music making devices, using a range of skills and apparatus. Conductive deliver workshops in primary and secondary schools across Waltham Forest to build a fruit piano, a lightsaber orchestra and wearable electronic instruments, to name just a few of their many creative musical experiments.
http://www.conductivemusic.uk
Cultural Education Partnership (CEP)
The Cultural Education Partnership (CEP) supports educators and arts providers within the borough to work more closely together, building skills, knowledge and networks to sustain a high-quality arts provision in the future. It has been developed with the help of investment from A New Direction’s London Challenge Fund.
https://wfculture19.co.uk/learning/teachers
East London Music Group
The East London Music Group (ELMG) promote music and the arts through performances and workshops in East London. In July 2018 they worked with 120 Waltham Forest primary school pupils to perform a brand new music and drama piece exploring the experiences of Waltham Forest residents during World War One. In Summer 2019 the ELMG developed and led a massed primary instrumental ensemble performing music and stories inspired by the children’s own communities.
http://www.eastlondonmusicgroup.co.uk/
Gateway to Music
The ‘Gateway2Music’ (G2M) group are the music hubs of the London Olympic and Gateway boroughs. G2M in association with the Jack Petchey Foundation have produced highly successful and inspiring collaborative performances previously most notably at the Sadler’s Wells Theatre, IndigO2 and Drury Lane for the Ignite Festival. Pupils from Waltham Forest take part in their annual ‘Band Challenge’ competition held in the Summer term.
Jack Petchey Foundation
The Jack Petchey Foundation was set up by Sir Jack Petchey to inspire and motivate young people across London and Essex to do their best and reach their full potential. At our Music School we run their Achievement Award scheme which recognises and rewards outstanding young people. As part of the award, pupils receive £250 to spend on something that will benefit Music School and their peers. Recent winners have used their grant for West End theatre trips to School of Rock and Wicked, a trip to a London Symphony Concert at the Barbican Centre and a Folk Music Workshop.
https://www.jackpetcheyfoundation.org.uk/
London Music Fund
The London Music Fund provides grants to enable children and young people across every London borough to develop their musical potential, through 4-year Scholarships and with project opportunities to learn from and perform alongside professionals. We are delighted to support scholarship pupils from Waltham Forest in getting the most from their music education.
https://www.londonmusicfund.org/
London Sinfonietta
London Sinfonietta is the UK’s flagship new music ensemble. Its mission is to place contemporary classical music at the heart of today’s culture. With London Sinfonietta, secondary school pupils from Waltham Forest have developed creative composition and instrumental skills through listening, composing and performing opportunities. Pupils have worked with a professional composer and instrumentalist to create short, single-instrument pieces which were developed into an orchestral concert piece, and performed by a combined youth orchestra from Waltham Forest, Haringay and Enfield with Sinfonietta musicians, performed at the Queen Elizabeth Hall on the Southbank in March 2019.
https://www.londonsinfonietta.org.uk/
London Symphony Orchestra
The London Symphony Orchestra (LSO) is one of the world’s top orchestras. We are lucky enough to work with LSO musicians on a number of projects including:
- ‘LSO Connect’ which brings secondary age pupils from across Waltham Forest together to learn and perform music in a bespoke ensemble. Pupils will have the opportunity to work with professional musicians from the LSO and from WFMS, and to perform in a concert at Leyton Great Hall in Summer term 2019.
- ‘LSO Discovery’ and ‘LSO On Track’ are 1-3 year programmes that rewardscommitted and talented instrumentalists from Waltham Forest to compose and play music with a series of workshops and performances at LSO St Lukes, Guildhall and the Barbican.
https://lso.co.uk/
Music Mark
Music Mark is a members organisation that lobbies for, and champions, a government supported, high quality, music education provision for all school aged children and young people which addresses diversity, equity and inclusion at its core. Waltham Forest Music Education Hub is a member of Music Mark and staff in Waltham Forest are supported and developed through their training and networking opportunities.
https://www.musicmark.org.uk/
MVP Workshops
MPV Workshops are dedicated to engaging young people in creative and positive activities. MVP Workshops have recently worked with young people from Waltham Forest to create a documentary about the history of grime music in the borough and are also delivering workshops leading to a Walthamstow Garden Party Performance by and for young people.
http://www.mvpworkshops.co.uk/
National Youth Orchestra
The National Youth Orchestra (NYO) is a national platform for Britain's brightest and best teenage musicians to come together to create performances that astound and inspire. Waltham Forest Music Education Hub is supports pupils in Waltham Forest to progress and audition for the NYO, and is proud of all our pupils who are members past and present.
https://www.nyo.org.uk/
Oompah Brass
Oompah Brass are a five-piece brass group specialising in virtuosic and high-energy performances of rock and pop classics. Since 2017, pupils from primary schools across Waltham Forest have been inspired by and performed with Oompah Brass at our annual music festival at Walthamstow Assembly Hall with up to 250 young brass instrumentalists taking part each time.
https://oompahbrass.com/
The RSPB Wildlife Charity and Kate Stilitz
Composer Kate Stilitz created Meadowsong, a musical journey through the habitat of a wildflower meadow for young singers. In 2019, children from 30 primary schools in Waltham Forest came together to rehearse and perform the Meadowsong song cycle at the Waltham Forest Music Festival.
http://katestilitz.co.uk/project/meadowsong/