Buxton Festival Community and Education Review 2011 Supported by Buxton Natural Mineral Water
Every year Buxton Festival aims to open up our activities to our community and those unable to attend the main Festival with a programme of engaging events. In 2011 we are delighted to have involved over 2,000 local people in creative, quality arts activities. All projects are designed specifically to suit different sections of our community and all are delivered by experienced professional artists. We are committed to raising funds to ensure that our collective projects can be offered to schools and community groups at no charge. Here is a summary of the year’s projects.
Tarka the Otter Supported by The Chestnut Centre The highlight of this year’s programme was the community opera Tarka the Otter Otter. This was a truly collaborative project involving children from Buxton Junior School, Whaley Bridge Primary School and Glossopdale Community College, young people from The Mad Hatters Youth Choir, local amateur adult singers, young dancers from Déda, young singers from the RNCM and a professional creative team and orchestra. Over the summer term the various groups worked with Festival musicians and artists to put together their part of the show. They all came together for the fi rst time at the beginning of July for a week of intensive rehearsals. A special element of the project has been the creation of a stop-animation fi lm. The fi lm was created by students from Hague Bar and Thornsett Primary schools working with theatre designer Richard Aylwin for a week in May, including a visit to our project sponsor, The Chestnut Centre Otter Sanctuary. The beautiful abstract fi lm provided the backdrop to the opera when it was performed at the Festival. The opera was performed three times, including a free performance for local schools and groups for the elderly. Our goals in undertaking this significant project were to work with a crosssection of our community, including young children, teenagers, teachers and adults. By working with Festival musicians and other sections of the community, participants developed their musical knowledge, performance skills, team-work and interpersonal skills. We hope that by taking part in the project participants gained a real interest in opera and music. ‘I enjoyed taking a part in this year’s community opera—clearly a lot of hard work is put into the event by many people and it was very pleasing to see how well it was supported in the new venue. I hope there will be another one next year!’ A community chorus member Here are some comments from children who attended the schools performance: ‘I liked it because they sang good opera and it was fun and exciting.’ ‘I liked the fact that there was an orchestra not a CD, it sounded a lot better.’