Holiday of note for young musicians

The young musicians from Oldham who enjoyed the summer school in Cheadle Hulme

These young Oldham students have been enjoying making music at a special orchestral summer school.

They are from a variety of Oldham primary and secondary schools, and the course, called Musicale Holidays, was held at Cheadle Hulme Grammar School. They joined musicians from across the region to to enjoy a week of music-making and fun, studying music by composers including Corelli, Strauss and Peter Martin, Oldham Music Centre’s string specialist.

The schools included St Patrick’s, Corpus Christi, Delph, St Paul’s, and Lyndhurst primaries, and Blue Coat and St Augustin’s secondary schools.

A midweek soloists’ concert gave the young performers an individual platform and the final concert featured choir, samba band and full orchestra. Musicale Holidays company is owned by Gill Johnston, whose daughter is a member of the Escala girl group who featured on “Britain’s Got Talent.”

As a tribute, the summer school students were joined by four electric violinists who performed “Rollickin’ Reel” which was written by Peter Martin as an orchestral accompaniment to be performed as a massed item for string players of all abilities.

Orchestral director, Annabel Revell, said: “We had a wonderful week. The children experienced a wide range of musical styles, had a lot of fun and left with a great sense of achievement.”