Pupils Make a Racket at St Mary’s

Hundreds of children from across Richmond recently took to the stage at St Mary’s University College, Twickenham, for the annual Big Racket music event. Now in its fifth year, The Big Racket is organised by the Richmond Music Trust. The Trust delivers a range of high quality musical experiences across the borough, providing instrumental and vocal tuition in schools and music centres, running a wide range of ensembles and organising hugely popular large-scale events. The Trust works closely with primary schools to deliver the Wider Opportunities programme, which gives all KS2 children the opportunity to learn to play a musical instrument. The Big Racket celebrates this work, along with the work of more advanced pupils who already play in ensembles, and is designed to inspire young players to continue their musical journeys. The Big Racket concerts are the first time for many of the children to play with professional musicians in a full orchestra/concert band setting. Pupils played to audiences over two evenings, with one concert focusing on strings and guitars and the other on brass, woodwind, keyboard and percussion. Coming up in 2104 is the exciting Firebird music and dance project. The primary phase of the project will culminate in a massed performance at St Mary’s next June, involving hundreds of primary instrumentalists and dancers.