In aid of our musicians and staff running the Manchester 10k we’ve made a limited edition Just Play It.^TM T-shirt.

We’re known for our cross-genre collaborations here at Manchester Camerata, and this T-shirt takes <eh-hem> influence from a well-known sports brand on the front, with a list of some of the composers we have played on the back.

We have a few of these to give away. Any donation over £20 will be entered into a raffle to win one of these T-shirts.

Do something amazing and support the incredible impact our musicians make both on and off the stage by donating here today.

Make a donation >

Manchester Camerata appoints Nic Hailey as Chair of its Board

Today [21 Jan] we have announced the appointment of Nic Hailey as the new Chair of our board. Nic is the Executive Director of International Alert – a charity that helps people affected by conflict. Prior to that, he spent 24 years in the UK Diplomatic Service, most recently as Director-General, Transformation, at the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office. He has used his senior positions and vast experience to campaign for international peace.

Nic currently chairs the Board of Trustees of the Waldorf Learning Foundation, a charity that supports teacher training and school provision. He brings a wealth of expertise, knowledge and passion to our pioneering orchestra as we continue to pursue our vision as a charity, transforming lives through exceptional music.

Bob Riley, Chief Executive of Manchester Camerata, said:

“Thanks to the guidance and hard work of our outgoing chair Stephen Dauncey, the board, and the whole team at Camerata, our organisation is in a fantastic position. However, with an everchanging cultural landscape and societal pressures, there are great challenges for our sector ahead. This is an incredibly exciting time for us here and we cannot wait to get started with our new chair, Nic, who brings a breadth of experience and knowledge to the team with a palpable passion for our vision to transform everyone’s lives through exceptional music.”

Nic Hailey, Chair of the Board, said:

“I have always been passionate about the transformative and connecting nature of music -music for change – and that is what Manchester Camerata’s work is all about. I look forward to working with everyone at Camerata to champion and support that vital mission in the years ahead.“

Steve Dauncey, Manchester Camerata’s outgoing chair said:

“I am so proud of all that has been achieved by everyone during my tenure as Chair at Manchester Camerata. To see the organisation making such great impact on the communities we serve (both on and off the stage) is an honour. I have enjoyed my time immensely, it has been incredibly fun, and I look forward to watching further growth under Nic’s stewardship.”

We are so excited to have Nic joining us and can’t wait to get going with him.

Manchester Camerata worked with the executive search firm, GatenbySanderson, for the recruitment of this role.

Click here to see our current Board of Trustees >

Earlier this year, our brilliant Camerata musicians Sarah W, Hannah, Andrea and Sarah N plus composer Andy teamed up with over 400 pupils from 15 schools across Stafford, Stoke and Telford to write their own music inspired by Roald Dahl’s classic book, ‘Matilda’.

These projects are a great way to help build pupils’ confidence, encourage creative thinking and embed music into the school curriculum.

Watch our video to see clips of the incredible performances of those who took to the stage in front of a packed-out Prince of Wales Theatre in Cannock!

A big well done to all involved, and thank you to The Music Partnership and Entrust for supporting this latest Create With Camerata project.

Click Here to find out more about our work with young people >

Yesterday saw the launch of our community team’s ‘George’s Marvellous Medicine’ project. Working with fifteen schools across Staffordshire, Camerata musicians teamed up with young people to write entirely new music inspired by Roald Dahl’s classic book ‘George’s Marvellous Medicine’.

This is our 6th year of working with the fantastic Entrust Music Service and delivering creative music-making projects. These projects are a great way to help build pupils’ confidence, encourage creative thinking and explore educational topics in new and exciting ways.

Plus, to help embed creative music-making in the curriculum, we gave teachers the opportunity to try out some of our specialist classroom teaching techniques through CPD workshops and accompanying online videos.

Big thank you to Entrust, The Music Partnership, Staffordshire Music Hub and Stoke City Music Services.

Also, a MASSIVE WELL DONE to all the participating schools! We loved working with you!

• Berkswich C of E Primary School
• St Mary’s Catholic Primary School
• St Austin’s Catholic Primary School
• Endon High School
• St Teresa’s Catholic Primary School
• St. Thomas More Catholic Academy
• St Joseph’s Catholic Academy
• Our Lady & St Werburgh’s Catholic Primary School
• Heron Cross Primary School
• Sutherland Primary School
• Stoke minster primary
• Burton Manor
• Fulfen Primary School
• Birches Head Academy
• Painsley Catholic College

Click here to listen to all these marvellous songs!

Our Hidden Histories project led by Lavender Rodriguez has been featured by BBC Radio 3 Music Matters (in at 17m20s), Music Teacher Magazine and The Voice.

This is the second time we have run this project which focuses on Black and underrepresented composers to inspire the next generation.

Our head of Community, Lizzie Hoskin, had this to say about the project :

“We’ve loved running our Hidden Histories project. It’s our second year of the project, working first with composer James B Wilson and now Lavender Rodriguez.

Diversity is a huge barrier to overcome in classical music, especially when it comes to the school curriculum, The fact that we can actually help influence what’s happening in schools (and pupils) in our local area is amazing! By broadening the influences and knowledge base of the next generation of potential composers, we hope that we are actively addressing the diversity issue for the better.”

Thanks so much to Edsential for their support for this project as well as all the participating schools!

Listen to BBC Radio 3 Music Matters (17m20s) >

Read The Voice article >

Read Music Teacher Magazine article>

Find out more about the last Hidden Histories Project >

Find out more about our Community work >

“The workshop has been really helpful for our students in terms of the BTEC curriculum because they’ve been able to explore hip-hop music.

It’s been really beneficial having artists coming in that spend their day to day composing music in these styles because it really gives the students something to aspire to.” – Mr Hogg Year 10 Music Teacher

Over the past few months, we have been running a series of workshops at St Peter’s High School in Longsight to help support their BTEC Music Curriculum. Two of the workshops were focused on composing in specific genres, whilst the other two concentrated on overall composition and musicianship.

We worked with local recording artists to help inspire the students, in combination with our own professional musicians.

In the first session, we learnt more about hip-hop with performer and artist LayFullStop. The second workshop looked at the Grime genre, with workshops led by artist, Abnormal Sleepz.

Watch a short film about our hip-hop focused session with LayFullStop here.

Massive thanks to everyone at St Peter’s High and the students taking part. We loved working with you all!

Click here to watch a short film about the sessions >

Find out more about our work with young people >

BBC Music Magazine has honoured our 50th birthday with a 4-page feature covering the depth and breadth of our activity.
Journalist Jeremy Pound spent two action-packed with us, seeing everything from our school work, our music therapy for people living with dementia, to us filming our next episode of ‘Untold‘ at Stoller Hall.

Head over to the BBC Music Magazine website here to find out more.

BBC Music Magazine >

Waaaah! Today we say goodbye to Liz and Steph, who have been our Leeds University student placements for the last year.

Steph has been working with our community team for the past year, managing music-making projects with young people as well as working in collaboration with the marketing team to create some pretty amazing videos about our work.

Liz has been working in our concerts team, travelling up and down the country, ensuring all the shows run on time and most importantly that the orchestra have their music!

The two of them have been an incredible asset to the team here and we are sure that they will go on to achieve great things in their careers.

Steph and Liz – we will all miss you!

Read more about Steph and Liz’s experiences in these blog posts below.

Liz Dixon – Concerts Placement

I’m Liz and I’m doing a BA Hons Music course at the University of Leeds. I joined the Concerts team in Manchester Camerata last September as part of our ‘Year in Industry’ placement scheme. If you’d asked me a year ago what I thought my year in industry was going to be like, I would have said something like ‘it’s a year to gain work experience’. Whilst this is true, this past year has given me so much more than that. I feel as though I have grown and developed myself as a person and learnt and developed so many new skills: like independence, problem-solving and even communication!

For the past nine months I have assisted with around 20 different projects with the Camerata. From Mozart, Made in Manchester in Stoller Hall to our debut concert in Wigmore Hall with Jess Gillam, helping with stage management and librarian duties has given me the opportunity to work with and meet so many different musicians, all with different backgrounds. Their passion for music is really something special and their love can be felt as soon as they walk through the doors on day one of rehearsals, right through till the end of the concert.

Before starting this placement, I had gained lots of experience playing in orchestras however had a very limited idea about what goes on behind the scenes. Being part of the concerts team has opened my eyes to the world of arts admin, such as ordering sheet music, contracts and lots and lots of emailing!! Not only that, being part of the concerts team has really inspired me; being surrounded by people who share the same passions and are all so dedicated to Manchester Camerata, it’s incredible to see.

Exploring Manchester has been really exciting, especially through visiting lots of different venues with the Camerata. With this I have learnt to be adaptable – including working in less than usual spaces (see the picture of me sending out more lateral flow tests….): Mayfield Depot, a former railway station now a popular venue, is one of the more… interesting places I had to work which is where we held one of the Hacienda concerts!

Personally, the concert we did in Wigmore Hall in London was one of the main highlights of my placement; it was two days of many firsts. From getting the train by myself, flagging down a cab, to taking a lead in concert managing – it was truly an experience I won’t forget. Working and being surrounded by the Camerata team also made this a special concert, especially as I got to learn more about them individually.

Outside of work, and as a French horn player, I wasn’t sure how many playing opportunities I would have; but being in such a thriving city has offered me so much. I’ve played in brass bands, ensembles in the Manchester University Music Society and more recently in the Society’s production of A New Brain, a musical by James Lapine!

As I look back on this year, before I head back to my studies in Leeds, I’m proud of myself and everything I have accomplished. I just want to say a massive thank you to everyone I have worked with and for everything you have taught me. Here’s to the next chapter!

Stephanie Boon – Community Team placement

My Student Placement Experience at Manchester Camerata

I spent my February and March travelling round Cheshire East to deliver a series of creative composition workshops to four high schools, alongside composer Lavender Rodriguez and musicians Sarah Nixon and Jenny Cox.

Called Hidden Histories, this project explores composers from underrepresented backgrounds and uses their music to inspire students to embark on their own composition journeys. We looked at composers who were overlooked due to their gender, ethnicity, and sexuality. Since its conception during lockdown in early 2021, this project has had a lot of significance and naturally we wanted it to do just as well this time around!

Since starting my placement year with Manchester Camerata, Hidden Histories has got to be one of the biggest projects I undertook as a project lead, and with that came a lot of nerves as well as challenges: what might work well online might not have done so in person, for example. So it’s safe to say that there was a sense of responsibility with all the expectations surrounding it.  It almost felt like I was walking through a dark tunnel with only candlelight guiding me as I hoped that I would reach the end of it and discover something incredible. And we did.

Firstly, it was through this project that I got the chance to work alongside the greatest people I could’ve asked for. They were always supportive and together, we were up for the challenge. I got along really well with Lavender, what with both of us being University students (and sharing similar interests in Nintendo Switch games), and we also worked really well together during the workshops and behind the scenes.

Secondly, as a music student, I’ve seen first-hand how the curriculum can be Eurocentric, focusing on Western Art Music, and so it was great to be part of something that aims to break those barriers. It’s important that students are exposed to composers, musicians and artists who come from different backgrounds. We’ve missed out on so much great work done by composers who’ve gone unrecognised for years and years that I think it’s time we break the cycle. Expose students of today to composers they can relate to, so that they know that no matter who they are or where they come from, they have a voice that should be heard.

Throughout all the workshops, I was able to watch the students grow in confidence. A lot of them started the project saying that they would never call themselves a composer and that writing music was something they wouldn’t even dare to try, but by the end of it all, they all had written their own rhythms, melodies, and harmonies, and were always so eager to share their ideas with their classmates. 

At the culmination concert, whilst I would normally have my eyes fixed on the musicians performing, I took the chance to look around me and just watch the faces of the students. There were smiles, goosebumps, glimmers in eyes when they recognised a motif or rhythmic pattern they themselves wrote, and even a couple of tears. It was almost like an unsaid but shared sentiment of ‘wow, we did it…we did that’ and I could not have felt prouder!

I don’t think there’s a better way to sum up this project than what a student shared, ‘It doesn’t matter where you’re from or where your backgrounds are from, or the colour of your skin or ethnicity…if you like music, then it’s a great starting point.’

I guess my personal takeaway from this project, just like the students, is a growth in confidence and that sometimes, there’s only so much in your control or that you can plan for, but that’s okay because figuring things out along the way and being able to adapt quickly to changing situations and environments is all you need at times. 

And now I’m back at my desk, I can’t help but feel a little bittersweet about it all ending as I reflect on this project. A year ago, I was back in Leeds (probably pulling my hair out on yet another assignment) and I would have never thought that I would be able to have such an amazing project under my name.