On Sunday 16 March we held a special day of workshops for budding songwriters, composers and producers supported by Young Sounds UK. This Creators Day was led by a top team of music creatives, providing an opportunity to create, collaborate and experiment.
Our venue was the new Music Centre at the Purcell School for Young Musicians. Equipped with state-of-the-art facilities including; a magnificent Fazioli recital room, industry-standard recording studio, Apple iMac suites, and instrumental and academic teaching rooms. It proved to be the perfect setting, with full use of the building for the day.
The workshops were led by three leading professional music creators with support Young Sounds alumni. Production and songwriting activities were led by creative duo Anushka: Max Wheeler (production) and Victoria Port (singer and songwriter). Composition  was led by Ivor-Novello Award-winning composer and Purcell School composition teacher, Daniel Fardon.
The creative starting point for the day was a short compositional idea, written and recorded by Daniel on piano. Before activities began, the groups reflected on their response to the music and explored how the extract might be used as a compositional tool in different contexts and genres. The young people then spent the day developing creative ideas from this idea, in whatever creative medium they wanted. Some chose to craft a full song, some used the recording as a sample to build a track and others focused on writing instrumental melodies or vocal lines which were recorded in the studio.
Workshop support came from Young Sounds Alumni, including BBC Young Composer winner and Purcell Alum Maddy Chassar-Hesketh, composer and student at the Royal College of Music Franklin Onyeso and tutor and singer-songwriter Chloe Armstrong, currently studying at LIPA (Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts) . Additional production support came from Vondo Nkomo, a Graduate of the LCCM (London College of Contemporary Music) and early-career music producer.Â
During a break in creative activities, the young people moved to the recital hall for an informal panel discussion with our creative leaders and Alumni, chaired by Purcell School Director of Music, Paul Hoskins. The young people were free to ask anything of the panel guests. Themes included: where they get their creative influences, how they grew their careers, where they studied their craft and where they find their inspiration.
“I found the panel discussion very enlightening and incredibly helpful to my own creative situation. I really learned a lot in such a short amount of time, both about the workings of the music industry and about myself as a musician. I took a lot away from this and left feeling inspired by what was said.”
After a busy afternoon back in the creative workshop. the three groups came back together to reflect on the different ways the original compositional idea has been used creatively and listened to extracts of the music that has been made.
The day saw extensive use of Charanga’s acclaimed YuStudio platform, developed by Max Wheeler. Every young person on our programmes receives free access to a YuStudio . Many used the platform as their compositional software on the day, with others working in their preferred DAW (Digital Audio Workstation). All recordings and tracks from the day are being made available to the cohort, so that they can continue to develop their ideas in their own time and can have fun using samples made by other young people on the day. We can’t wait to hear these files shared with the wider Young Sounds family.Â
We’d like to thank Daniel, Max, Victoria, Sally Ann (Senco), Jacob Eccles (Music Technology Assistant) Vondo, Chloe, Franklin and Maddy. And of course, all the young musicians and their parents who took part.
“I really enjoyed meeting other musicians and being creative. I found getting advice and support from the mentor very helpful and it was interesting to learn so much more about the world of music production. It was inspiring to be around so much talent from people who are my age. Thank you to the Purcell School staff and to the Young Sounds team for letting me take part in such an uplifting, fun and inspiring project. I thoroughly enjoyed the day!”
This event is part of our Engering Music Creators Programme, a new programme of support for young creators. Over the coming year, as well as events like these, this programme will see 10 young creators matched with a professional creative mentor, who will support them to develop their craft and provide access to industry knowledge and opportunities. This programme is generously supported by the Margaret Engering Music Trust.
Double your donation this week as part of Arts for Impact. Every donation made to our appeal between Tuesday 18 March and Tuesday 25 March will be doubled, by the Big Give and their partners, New Philanthropy for Arts & Culture (NPAC), until we reach our fundraising target of ÂŁ20,000. Â
If you believe that nothing should stand in the way of a talented young musician reaching their potential, we’d be delighted if you’d support us.
