As you may know already, last year BBC Music and Learning created a ground-breaking initiative designed to open up the world of classical music in a fresh and exciting way to a generation of children and inspire their creativity. Ten Pieces is the BBC’s biggest investment in music education and was launched last autumn with a spectacular cinematic film for Primary school children introducing them to 10 pieces of classical music.
After such a huge success in more than 11,000 primary schools, we will be ready with another set of Ten Pieces for secondary schools in the new academic year. The new repertoire is really exciting for the 11-14 age-group and there are many ways that students can respond creatively to these ten pieces.
The BBC is collaborating with more than 250 Ten Pieces Champions across the UK, including Music Education Hubs and Music Services, Bridges, local orchestras, film, dance and other arts organisations all working with schools to deliver music and arts education.
Starting with special screenings in cinemas across the country and ending with a major celebratory event in Summer 2016 – Ten Pieces Secondary will open up the world of classical music to children and encourage them to develop their own creative responses to the pieces through music, dance, performance poetry, coding, or digital art.
The new Ten Pieces film will be shown in cinemas from 5th October. It will feature performances of all the Ten Pieces by the BBC Philharmonic, alongside presentation from the likes of actor Christopher Eccleston, Radio 1 DJ Clara Amfo, rapper & comedian Doc Brown, singer Pixie Lott, ex-footballer Dion Dublin, poet & author Lemn Sissay, star of “Wolfblood” Bobby Lockwood and TV presenters James May & Naomi Wilkinson. You can sign up here to see the film at the cinema, but please make sure to book your free seats asap to avoid disappointment.
The BBC will also be providing a free DVD for every secondary school – which you can order now – as well as lesson plans, downloadable audio files of the repertoire (including backing tracks), arrangements of the pieces for mixed ability groups, inspirational masterclass films, composer profiles, Ten Pieces Extra films (exploring the music and the living composers in more depth), cross-curricular resources, music tech resources and performance guides. There’s more to explore here, and the resources will start to appear on the website over the course of the summer, and will all be in place by 1st September.
It would be great to have you and your students on board for the very exciting second phase of the Ten Pieces project!
If you require any further information please contact me directly or the Ten Pieces team at tenpieces@bbc.co.uk
