A Stringcredible day at Royal Birmingham Conservatoire

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On Sunday 22 June 2025, we brought together young people on our Thrive programme for a fun day of music making with The Stringcredibles. Taking place at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire (RBC) this event was delivered in partnership with the RBC Learning and Participation Department. For many of the participants this was their first time at the Conservatoire and was an opportunity to make music with young people of the same age.

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The Stringcredibles

Our facilitators for the day were The Stringcredibles, an independent string quartet of CBSO musicians, dedicated to improving connections between musicians and audiences. Their projects and resources help young musicians to power up their performance skills and achieve greater impact. 

Also supporting the creative activities were students from RBC and Young Sounds Alumni. This collaboration gave the students valuable experience of supporting young musicians, whilst our participants received tips and insights from musicians further along in their musical journey but also close enough to share relatable experiences.

Pitch, pace and perform

The morning saw The Stringcredibles engage the young people in their Pitch, Pace and Perform programme. Through musical games and role-play, the workshop helps develop musical delivery by emphasising stronger stage presence, body language, communication of emotion, projection, and self-confidence.  

This session was run without instruments, demonstrating an important part of being a professional musician that’s rarely taught in an applied way. It also asked questions around the very nature of performing, challenging the young musicians’ ideas of their role, responsibilities and connection to an audience.

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Creating and composing

The afternoon saw the young musicians take to their instruments to explore ensemble skills and improvisation. They took turns leading the group through a specially written piece by composer Ryan Linham. This emphasised conveying emotion through performance, often overlooked in favour of technical proficiency.  

In groups they were then tasked with creating and composing a musical accompaniment to a short film, highlighting the beauty of nature and importance of the environment.  This combined traditional musical ideas with more experimental approaches, putting into practice the previous activity to better convey emotion and establish tone. Featuring woodwind, brass and stringed instruments, the session offered a variety of sounds to explore.

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Final performance

All participants returned to the recital hall to share their pieces for family and friends. Working from the same footage, the groups presented distinct musical interpretations of what was presented on screen. 

To end the day some of the young musicians attended a performance of Constellations, a collaboration with Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, French contemporary music ensemble L’Instant Donné, and pianist composer-technologist Zubin Kanga as ‘cyborg pianist’. An interstellar exploration into the role of the soloist, technology in music, and the future of music-making.

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Thank you

Thank you to The Stringcredibles, Royal Birmingham Conservatoire’s Learning and Participation Department, our Alumni and RBC students.

If you know a young musician who would benefit from musical opportunities like these, head to our Thrive page to find out more!