I’m lucky enough to see them seriously enjoying the Ingestre experience and Sean Omer (Conductor) agrees – “when kids first come here they’re apprehensive, nervous and and don’t know each other, by the time they leave they’re best friends – it’s a bonding experience through music”. Although clearly enjoying the social experience, the music is being developed to a very high standard and the proof will be clearly visible during the final performance at 1.30 today (19^th May)

Everyone’s having a ball and the opportunity to build trust, respect and working relationships between teachers and students outside of the traditional school environment is captured in what students are saying; “the teachers are amazing,  they’re really helpful and have loads of knowledge and experience, we’re being introduced to new repertoire, its challenging, fast and not what were used to but it’s great developing music skills with new friends”.

I’m really pleased the group are making the most of our main hall – it’s a fitting environment for the experience of rehearsing and performing as a string orchestra. I’m very much looking forward to the next Entrust group visit and to continuing to deliver high quality and innovative performing arts programmes with young people from across the UK, fortunately the young musicians feel the same; “we would love to come again – it’s becoming a fantastic tradition for us”.

Felix Pepler – Head of Centre

Anthony has been heading up a music therapy project working alongside adults with mental illnesses and Laura has continued to run her ‘Lindy Hop’ classes and working hard on completing her MA in Community Arts.

However the most exciting news is that in 2013 they will both be flying off to Cambodia to work for the charity Epic Arts, running a centre which provides arts programmes for disabled performers.  You can click her to visit their website and learn more, and watch this film to see an example of some of the incredible perfomance work that has been produced:

”4D” with 4 Motion Dance Theatre [Cambodia] from Epic Arts on Vimeo.

All of the team at Ingestre Hall wish them both every success in this exciting new venture.  While they have been preparing to travel they have also had opportunities to perform and enjoy themselves, as you can see on this new music video which features their unique dancing and acting talents. We’re sure you’ll enjoy it as much as we did!:

Good Luck Anthony and Laura !

THE BEGGING CHILD (by Jude from Uplands Manor Primary School)

One mysterious, gloomy night, three naughty children sneaked into Ingestre.  The were planning on stealing the most valuable painting in the building, which was located at the top of the blue stairs.

Terrified, and trembling with fear, the group slowly began creeping upstairs. Suddenly a flash of light caught their eye. They slowly looked up to see a disturbing, creepy ghost standing at the top of the stairs. It grabbed one of the trio, let out a horrifying scream and ran off.

And they say you can still hear the ghost of the child begging for help at the peak of midnight…

Creepy, don’t you think…?

Our Week at Ingestre Hall from Ingestre Arts on Vimeo.

If you are interested in ths option you will need to visit us first to have a look around at our facilities and discuss your requirmentts with us. Please call us for details, including availability and prices.

Another wonderful week – the best of my 6 visits! Children (who lacked confidence) got involved in all the sessions and performed in Drama. Quality of tuition… superb! Pupil progress and learning… amazing! Overall value of the experience… off the scale!! - (Mr Cotterill, Kingswinford School)

We think that one of the best quotes of the week came from one student who simply said…

This week has made me a better person – (Kingswinford student)

 

Here is the film. We hope that you enjoy watching it as much as we enjoyed the week working with these enthusiastic students:

INGESTRE HALL 2012 – KINGSWINFORD SCHOOL from Ingestre Arts on Vimeo.

Ingestre Arts has a fun programme of Christmas and Winter themed day courses which will be available to Primary School groups who wish to come to Ingestre Hall for a day during November and December.  A course will last for the duration of the school day and can explore any theme of your choice – but we are providing schools with some ideas of themes that might work particularly well here at Ingestre Hall during the Autumn Term:

• Panto in a Week
• Light and Dark
• Shakespeare
• Indian Summer

Click to download our Autumn Themes for Secondary Weeks information sheet for further details, and call us to discuss your requirements. You can find out which weeks are currently available by clicking here.

Our first ‘Student Blogger’ is Jessica Barrett from Hillcrest School, who visited Ingestre Hall in April 2012:

Ingestre Hall has been one of my best experiences.

I have learnt how to sculpt with wire and sew fabric to wire, to collage and to be independent with my work.

On Monday they showed us round all the rooms and told us the rules of the place.  On Tuesday we got started on our workshops and our theme, which was ‘Dreams’.  I was in Art so we would all do the same theme, but use different dreams.  In our first workshop we did a postcard which we wrote our names on and then collaged it with things that expressed our interests.  Also our tutor Ruth, who is lovely and very helpful, told us what to do which was to make a box and put our ‘dream’ in it by using collage and wire work and other things that we wanted to use. On Wednesday we carried on with our work and during free time (evening) we watched a film in our PJs. On Thursday we finished our work in Music, Drama, Art and Dance. The Music group did a live performance and in our free time we had karaoke.  On Friday we packed up and sadly went home.

This trip has been one of the best experiences of my life so far. You make friends that are older and younger than you and you learn new techniques and most of all you have so much fun.

The things that I have learnt about myself are that I can express myself easily and I can be different and independent.

The groups final performances were amazing and different, exciting and dedicated!

I feel more confident with the choices I will be picking for my GCSEs.

Ingestre is very detailed – there are so many interesting things to know and find out here, it has been an amazing experience! Xox

The gallery below shows the Art work from Hillcrest School’s visit. Jessica’s own work is the piece featuring the bird at the top.

Congratulations to all of the Hillcrest students who produced such excellent work across all the groups and brought a real creative atmosphere to Ingestre Hall this week!

The project, masterminded by Matthew Jones Music, brought together a talented choir and live musicians who underwent intensive rehearsals in order to record Matthew’s arrangements of some well known 1960s songs for a CD, featuring Boy George as soloist, all in aid of Marie Curie Cancer Care.

Matthew Jones has said

As lead singer of Culture Club, Boy George became a global superstar in the early 80’s with the classics ‘Do You Really Want To Hurt Me?’ and ‘Karma Chameleon’. Having achieved solo success with such singles as ‘Everything I Own’ and ‘The Crying Game’, he launched an illustrious career as an international DJ and later penned and starred in the West End and Broadway musical ‘Taboo’. 30 years on from his ‘poster boy’ days of the New Romantic era, the icon’s androgynous looks and personal life continue to fascinate the world’s media.

The new release will celebrate the great Italian ballads of the 60’s – in particular, those that became English-version hits including ‘Io Che Non Vivo (Senza Te)’ (Dusty Springfield’s ‘You Don’t Have To Say You Love Me’), ‘Il Mio Mondo’ (Cilla Black’s ‘You’re My World’) and ‘La Vita’ (Shirley Bassey’s ‘This Is My Life’)”

It was exciting to be part of such a high profile project and everyone on the staff at Ingestre Hall was impressed by the extremely high standard of musicianship demonstrated by the choir and orchestra; and of course the highlight was being able to see and hear Boy George’s unique vocal talent on display, right here in the Great Hall. Of course there were also the challenges of accommodating and feeding over 80 adults, maintaining adequate security and keeping everyone happy – all tasks that the Ingestre Hall staff set about with both typical good humour and professionalism.

The recording was undertaken by our partner organisation, Studio 2 Recordings, with John Percival coordinating and John Sambrook engineering. This was no mean feat, and turned out to be the most complicated recording project that has been undertaken at Ingestre Hall. One of the main technical difficulties to overcome was the requirement from Matthew to produce a ‘live’ sound by recording the choir and orchestra together in the Great Hall. This was achieved using multiple microphone positions, 24 simultaneous tracks and of course by Matthew ensuring that mistakes were eradicated through intensive rehearsal of each of the songs.  Even one small mistake, a cough, or a musician unhappy with their performance could result in an entire take being stopped and everyone having to ‘go again’.  (No wonder the choir all cheered so loudly each time they were informed that there was a successful take ‘in the can’!)

Although this approach might have seemed laborious at times, I don’t think that we’re giving anything away by saying that, having listened to some of the recordings, the results are truly spectacular and well worth the effort!

Amongst all of this busyness we were also able to chat with Boy George on numerous occasions over the weekend, between rehearsals and takes, and he very kindly agreed to pose for a few photo with members of the Ingestre Arts and Studio 2 Recordings team before he had to depart on the Sunday evening.

Following the success of this weekend, we are excited to be partnering with Studio 2 Recordings to host more recording projects in the coming months at Ingestre Hall, the next project being with the National Police Symphony Orchestra, so we’ll be sure to be on our best behaviour for that!

If you have an ensemble group who you would like to be recorded in the Great Hall or if you wish to hire the recording studio for a smaller project, contact John Percival at Studio 2 Recordings or contact Ingestre Arts to check on availablity for residential weekends.

John Thomson, Head of Centre