News & Press

Egypt is a long way both geographically and culturally from Mountbatten Primary School in Wivern Road, Hull.  But that hasn’t stopped a group of Year 5 pupils from the school being announced national winners of MusicQuest 2009/10 with their own original piece of classical music, Egyptian Tragedy.

MusicQuest is a project run by The Prince’s Foundation for Children & the Arts and wholly funded by Classic FM Music Makers, which aims to introduce the power of live classical music to a new generation.  Children have the chance to meet musicians from the Philharmonia Orchestra in a ‘hands on’ workshop, where they get to try an instrument and learn different percussion rhythms with a professional musician. They will then see that same musician performing in a concert later on that day. The children’s interest is then further developed by encouraging them to work together to write their own composition and enter it into a national competition.

Having won first prize in the competition, a group of 22 Year 5 pupils from Mountbatten Primary School are preparing to travel to the capital on Thursday 30th September to hear their piece performed by the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra at the Royal Albert Hall as part of Classic FM Live.

Selene Turner-Craven, music teacher at Mountbatten Primary School, said: “Although we have a varied and interesting music curriculum at the school, this project has given our pupils the opportunity to develop their own interest in classical music in a fun, exciting and informal way.  The prize they have won is so overwhelming – £10,000 worth of Yamaha music equipment and the opportunity to hear their piece performed by one of the world’s best orchestras in one of the world’s best performing arts venues.”

The winning school got involved in the project after receiving a letter from Children & the Arts encouraging them to take part.

Selene added: “I liked the sound of what the MusicQuest project had to offer and was given the skills and confidence to deliver it through a one day training workshop at the Albemarle Music Centre in Hull.  Two musicians from the Philharmonia then came to the school and delivered a workshop to Years 4 and 5, which was followed by a fabulous concert at the Hull City Hall later that day attended by children from across the city.  This really inspired the pupils, persuaded them of the power of classical music and encouraged them to give writing a piece of classical music a go.”

Each week the pupils spent one hour listening to classical music, learning about composition and developing their own storyline and musical ideas for a whole class composition.

The result was Egyptian Tragedy, a piece of music which tells the story of a group of troublemakers who have arrived on camelback at a huge bazaar beside the River Nile.  One of the troublemakers, Saadiq, goes to see Madame Alicia at her fortune telling stall and is given the news that he will die before the day is out.  Refusing to believe this, he goes back to join his pals and is challenged to a game on a Coconut Shy, with a princely sum of money up for grabs.  Saadiq cheats and the challenger notices.  A fight follows, Saadiq escapes and climbs the Helter Skelter to get away but unfortunately falls to his death.

Jeremy Newton, Chief Executive of The Prince’s Foundation for Children & the Arts said: “The fantastic piece of music written by the class from Mountbatten Primary School proves both that nobody is ever too young to get the chance to learn and experience the arts and that children can easily be given the skills to write beautiful music they, and others, can enjoy.  We were overwhelmed by the standard of entries in this year’s competition and hope that we have encouraged hundreds of children across the country to increase their musical ability in a really positive way, while building their confidence and self-esteem.”

The Prince’s Foundation for Children & The Arts would like to thank Classic FM Music Makers for funding the project and Yamaha Music UK  and the Philharmonia for their support.  These organisations have enabled us to deliver a really innovative project to children up and down the country through local schools.