BBC Music's Ten Pieces III Announced - and the full set of videos to watch

I've written before about Culturebaby's brilliant experience of the 2016 Ten Pieces II Prom at the Royal Albert Hall: There's nothing quite like seeing your daughter falling in love with music; magnificent, passionate music that paints pictures and pins a 4 year old to their seat, gripped and inspired, and leaves them reminiscing, singing and dancing for weeks.

The Ten Pieces initiative aims to open up the world of classical music to 7-14 year-olds across the UK and inspire them to develop their own creative responses to music. The initiative launched in 2014 and has so far reached over four million people. Ten Pieces II was aimed at early secondary school children, combining dance, animation and a plethora of musical offerings.  However it was pitched, it suited the pre-schooler just as well. Culturebaby has declared that she loves 'big' music. She watched open mouthed in the Albert Hall as the organ thundered out its Fugue and the enormous choir of children perform the epic Day of Judgement from Verdi's Requiem.

I was therefore delighted to hear that this academic year's Ten Pieces III has been announced this week, and even better, school children across the country were treated to a 'live lesson' inspired by the Royal Opera House's production of the Nutcracker last Monday. In partnership with the Royal Opera House and The Royal Ballet School, the 30-minute Live Lesson from BBC Learning was presented by CBBC’s Naomi Wilkinson and Karim Zeroual and live-streamed to schools nationwide. BBC Music and BBC Learning have also produced a continuing programme of activity for Ten Pieces III for this academic year. By the end of the project, students and teachers will have the basic tools to choreograph their own original dances to any piece of music. There is a wide range of free Ten Pieces resources available, including a set of short films which accompany the new repertoire and support students in their explorations of the pieces, and six-weeks’ worth of lesson plans devised for each piece. There's also a series of Ten Pieces Schools Concerts planned for 2018. The details are set out below.

I'm really excited that we have been invited to host the new Ten Pieces III teaching videos on our blog. There are some absolutely fantastic pieces in this year's line up from a journey through The Nutcracker to the thundering darkly emotive Orff's O Fortuna. In each video, the children are introduced to the piece, the composer, and context, as well as looking at the instruments used. They also examine certain parts of the piece and the feelings they might evoke. At just over 6 minutes each, these bite-sized videos are pitched really well. I can't wait to show them to the girls.

1.     Kerry Andrew No Place Like - Commission for a cappella voices

2.     Mason Bates Anthology of Fantastic Zoology – Sprite; A Bao A Qu

3.     Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges Symphony No. 1 in G major – Allegro (1st mvt) 

4.     Aaron Copland Rodeo – Hoe-Down 

5.     Antonín Dvořák Symphony No. 9 in E minor, 'From the New World’ – Largo (2nd mvt)

6.     Edward Elgar ‘Enigma’ Variations – Theme (‘Enigma’), variations 11, 6 & 7

7.     Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky The Nutcracker – Waltz of the Flowers; Russian Dance

8.     Carl Orff Carmina burana – ‘O fortuna’ 

9.     Henry Purcell Abdelazer – Rondeau

10.  Jean Sibelius Finlandia

BBC Ten Pieces 2018 Schools and Family Concerts

  • Wednesday 7 February: Ten Pieces Schools Concert - City Halls, Glasgow (BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra) • Thursday 8 February: Ten Pieces Schools Concert – Perth Concert Hall (BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra) • Sunday 11 February: Ten Pieces Family Concert – His Majesty’s Theatre, Aberdeen (BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra) • Tuesday 27 February: Ten Pieces Schools Concert – Watford Colosseum (BBC Concert Orchestra) • Wednesday 28 February: Ten Pieces Schools Concert – The Embassy Theatre, Skegness (BBC Concert Orchestra) • Saturday 3 March: Family Concert - Sir Thomas Picton School, Haverfordwest (BBC National Orchestra of Wales) • Sunday 18 March: Family Concert - Venue Cymru, Llandudno (BBC National Orchestra of Wales) • Sunday 13 May: Family Concert - St David’s Hall, Cardiff (BBC National Orchestra of Wales) • Tuesday 15 May: Ten Pieces Schools Concert - MediaCityUK, Salford (BBC Philharmonic) • Wednesday 16 May: Ten Pieces Schools Concert - MediaCityUK, Salford (BBC Philharmonic) • Saturday 26 May: Family Concert – The Bridgewater Hall, Manchester (BBC Philharmonic)  • Thursday 21 June: Ten Pieces Schools Concert, Royal and Derngate, Northampton (BBC Symphony Orchestra) • Friday 22 June: Ten Pieces Schools Concert – Barbican, London (BBC Symphony Orchestra)

Booking details for the Ten Pieces School and Family Concerts will be available via the BBC Ten Pieces website shortly.

My First Ballet: Sleeping Beauty

On Good Friday the Culturebabies and I headed over to the Peacock Theatre to see the latest in English National Ballet School's inspired series of child-friendly ballets. My First Ballet, now in its 5th year, features a shortened version of the full ballet, with additional narration, intended to introduce the youngest of children to the classics. We'd been really excited to see Swan Lake last year but, due to a fire in Holborn, the London leg had been cancelled. So with a year's worth of anticipation, the girls donned their tutus and we made a great day of it. 

This unique collaboration between English National Ballet and English National Ballet School was particularly exciting for four year old Culturebaby as we are lucky enough to be able to attend one of the ENB's Junior ballet classes (currently in Chelsea, Richmond and Putney). These fabulous classes, run by highly trained professionals and featuring a real pianist, are also part of the ENBS so this term Culturebaby has been studying the Sleeping Beauty to tie in with what the older students are performing. It's amazing for a four year old to feel like they are part of a much bigger endeavour and see what their hard work could achieve. My First Ballet isn't danced by ENB professionals, it is created by English National Ballet’s Associate Artist George Williamson and performed by second year students from English National Ballet School. This means there is the odd wobble, but what an inspiration for a mini-ballerina starting out!

The production has so many elements that are perfect to capture the imagination of even the youngest child (two year old Culturetot was just as captivated as the older children). The costumes are stunning and the tutus, so important to little people, are spectacular - with just the right level of sticky-outiness for any toddler to covet every one. The set was also beautifully designed. There's no dumbing down here; this is no pantomime. Whilst there is humour, the young audience is treated with a significant level of trust and respect. Whilst the ballet is shortened and a narrator is added, this served to bring out the best in the performance and highlight elements even adults might not normally notice. Cleverly, the narrator is Aurora herself, looking back over the fairy tale of her youth. I was particularly impressed by the way that the narration pointed out the unique sign-language of the ballet (perhaps lost on many of us). Move by move, certain signs were highlighted as part of the tale, introducing the youngest viewer to the lexicon of the dance.

Culturebaby is rather old-school in her tastes. Whilst other children are single-minded in their devotion to Frozen, she prefers the older classic tales and Sleeping Beauty is amongst her favourites. It is such a simple story to follow and is so well known, that it works extremely well as a child-friendly ballet. Though it has a princess and an adventure, it fortunately features strong female characters in the roles of the fairies, and a malevolent character who must be overcome in the form of the evil fairy Carabosse (not Disney's Maleficent of course). There's even cameo appearances from Little Red Riding Hood, the wolf and Puss in Boots. The Peacock Theatre is large enough for the ballet to feel authentic and a real treat. The only downside was that the ENB school's budget doesn't seem to extend to a live orchestra - the music is recorded (but still of high quality).

The material that the ENB has produced to accompany the production was also great (the programme contained the story as well as a version using symbols, games and ballet positions to learn. Their website also includes some great resources including these fantastic free printable ballet position flash cards. 

We also prepared in advance with some selected reading. In particular I'd recommend James Mayhew's Ella Bella and Sleeping Beauty, which is part of a series about a little ballerina who, aided by a magical musical box, becomes part of the ballets she is dancing; aiding the heros and heroines of the pieces and helping to save the day. The brilliance of these books, other than their gorgeous illustrations and the fact that they feature a kindred soul for our little ballerinas, is that they also stick to the non-Disneyfied plot of the original ballet. I'd also recommend Usborne's Ballet Stories for Bedtime, containing a selection of well known and less well known ballet tales. 

We've also found that one of the best ways to prepare for a ballet (so evident with our trips to see ENB's exquisite Nutcracker with the girls at Christmas) is to play the full ballets in the background at home. They are easy on the ear, full of distinctive tunes and the children seem to absorb the scores without realising it - evident in the theatre as they hum along.

I'd thoroughly recommend My First Ballet for children as young as two and suspect we will be going for a good few years as they serve as such effective introductions to so many aspects of each classic production. It's also great news that they tour round the country and are accessible to tiny ballerinas nationwide. Dates and further information can be found here.

Disclaimer: We received out tickets in exchange for a review. As always all views are very much our own. All photographs of the ballet are featured courtesy of the English National Ballet School.