Sign up for email updates
Youths, Lutes & Ukes project - Final Concert Tuesday 9 July 2013
Youths, Lutes & Ukes: Music from Shakespeare to the blues - for a gang of strummers
Up to 200 young ukulele players from York schools have the exciting opportunity to work with members of the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain and the Theatre of the Ayre in a unique collaboration. The project begins in May with workshops for pupils from Yearsley Grove, Clifton Green, St. Barnabas, St. Aeldred's and Elvington primary schools led by local ukulele teachers and members of both ensembles. These will be followed up with regular visits throughout the summer term by ukulele players from the University of York's Music Education Group and York St John University, who will help the young people to learn and practise the music.
The project will culminate in a performance as part of York Early Music Festival, celebrating the sound of massed plucked instruments across the centuries. The concert will be given by the young players alongside members of the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain and the Theatre of the Ayre at the Sir Jack Lyons Concert Hall at the University of York on Tuesday 9th July 2013. To book tickets click here .
The project explores music by two musicians called Robert Johnson - one Shakespeare's lute player, the second a bluesman. Children will be introduced to the chord patterns of early seventeenth century England and will experience how they are related to similar patterns in blues songs. They will compose their own Bergamesca and blues song, and learn to accompany themselves for dancing along the way.
The Youths, Lutes & Ukes project is a Music4U project which is being run in conjunction with the National Centre of Early Music as part of the York Early Music Festival.
Images - Lutenist Elizabeth Kenny & Nick Browning (Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain) at St Barnbas' School, York. Courtesy of The SHM Foundation
