We are the music makers and we are the dreamers of dreams

My name is Katie Lawrence and I am Music Coordinator at Ballacottier Primary School on the beautiful Isle of Man. At the time of writing, it is still half term here – the world famous TT motorcycle races are taking place and therefore, apart from exams, schools are closed. However, there is no rest for the wicked, as we are busy putting the final touches to a mass singing concert that will be taking place at the Villa Marina in Douglas. It is our largest concert hall venue and the only place big enough to hold the 650 children that will be taking part in the concert (along with the audience!).

I have had the idea for the concert in my head for some years now, but I decided to put plans into action towards the end of last summer. It was initially born out of a feeling that, outside of the Manx Music Festival (‘The Guild’) and the Manx Folk Awards, local schools here rarely get the chance to meet together in the same room and share their love of singing and performing with each other. We do have a schools’ singing event (Children in Song) that takes place every other year at the Villa, which normally takes the form of a commissioned work. Previous featured composers include Rebecca Lawrence and Lin Marsh, the latter of whom wrote a very successful series of songs called the Chronicles of Mann. There are also several excellent non-school-based performing arts groups and stage schools, which many of the pupils performing in the concert attend in their own spare time. However, from a schools’ point of view, there aren’t many opportunities for schools to join together in concert, hence this project was born.

I decided to do things slightly differently and settled upon using the idea of a theme for the concert. I loved reading as a child and as I have mentioned in my programme notes for the concert, it can easily make your imagination run wild. The eventual result was to focus upon films and musicals that were based on books and stories. The programme for the concert was formed using song suggestions from some of the schools involved in the project and will feature songs such as ‘Pure Imagination’, ‘Cruella de Vil’, ‘I Wanna Be Like You’ and the ever favourite ‘Consider Yourself’, to name but a few. We believe that we have arrived at a wellbalanced programme of both upbeat and slower songs – indeed, you can’t get much more of a contrast than Under the Sea and Go the Distance!

I haven’t done all the work for this by myself and there is no way I could have done it without the amazing support of some of my hard working and dedicated primary music colleagues. It’s been a really exciting project for us to organise and one which I would dearly love to repeat in two years’ time. I am hugely inspired by one of our former music advisors, the late Alan Pickard. I grew up playing in the Manx Youth Orchestra and was lucky enough to be involved in some of the big projects that he organised. Experiences like this in my own musical youth have helped shape my own ideas for concert and projects. What once seemed like a crazy pipe dream has become a reality, but it only becomes that if you have the support from colleagues, friends and family.

To me, there is nothing greater than the sounds and sights of children joining together simply for the love of music. I cannot tell you how much I am looking forward to the concert – it promises to be a glorious wall of sound from our island’s talented primary school children. There are 25 choirs involved in total, schools from all over the island. What next for the future? Well there are plans for a smaller concert project in October, which will hopefully gather together celebrated traditional music, song and dance ensembles from various island primary schools. In the meantime, initial discussions have already taken place with regards to a possible one-day music education conference on the island. Exciting times lie ahead for music education in the Isle of Man!

_________________________________________________________________ Katie Lawrence was born and raised on the Isle of Man. She is secondary qualified but moved to primary very early on in her career 14 years ago, when she took up her original post at Ballacottier. She teaches music to every class in the school, including reception. Amongst other extra-curricular ensembles, she runs a successful junior choir, who performed at Llangollen last year.