News & Press

On Thursday 24th September Classic FM held one of their two ‘Classic FM Live’ concerts of the year at the Royal Albert Hall.

Among performances by The Priests, Sarah Chang and Alex James, there was also a very special piece performed. The music, entitled ‘Pentland Pyrotechnics’, was written by 9 to 11 year olds from Pentland Primary School in Middlesborough, who took part in Children & the Arts’ MusicQuest project last year. Some of the young composers were able to attend and see their work performed by Northern Sinfonia in front of a sell-out crowd. After the orchestra finished, the children soon found themselves the cente of attention, as Classic FM’s Simon Bates brought the lights up on them, and they were greeted by a great ovation.

Pentland Primary School won this opportunity through the MusicQuest composition competition, which challenges all participating schools, in the wake of their MusicQuest experience, to compose a short piece of classical music. The chance to have their piece performed by a professional orchestra at Classic FM Live was only part of the prize however as, each year, the winning school also receives £10,000 pounds worth of music equipment courtesy of Yamaha Music UK and five runers-up each receive £1,000 worth of music equipment for their schools.

The concert was staged to raise money for Classic FM Music Makers, the charitable arm of Classic FM, which is the principal sponsor of MusicQuest. MusicQuest will be bringing it’s concerts and workshops to another 5,000 children across the country in January next year.

Classic FM Live will be broadcast in full on Classic FM at 9pm on Wednesday 30th September.

‘Pentland Pyrotechnics’ will be broadcast on Anne Marie Minhall’s show, at 3pm on Sunday 4th October

For more information please visit www.classicfm.com