Young creatives and the BSO Young Associates will come together for a series of creative training workshops to develop their creative music practice and develop their community music leading skills.

This free to access training weekend will take place on Saturday 22 March (11.00am-4:30pm) and Sunday 23 March (10am-1pm). Both days will be in Portsmouth, at Portsmouth Guildhall.

This will be a chance to play, sing and create with like-minded individuals, through a practical music making session led by BSO Associates Hugh Nankivell and Neil Valentine. You will gain key tools and tips to be able to apply in your music making groups, such as icebreakers and warm up games, and it will equip you with how to use music as a tool to build connections within your community.

Free to participate (travel costs will be reimbursed and a hotel for Saturday night for those who aren’t local can be reimbursed on discussion). We will be able to recommend hotels.

This opportunity is aimed at musicians and creatives who are emerging in the field. This could be between the ages of 18-30 but we acknowledge this could also be for anyone looking to retrain or wanting further CPD e.g. music teachers or freelance supporting musicians who frequently work in community music sessions or workshops.

Please fill out our form to apply – there is a maximum of 25 spaces and the deadline is Friday 7 March 12pm. You will then be notified if you have received a space. If you can’t attend this weekend, but are interested in further training days, please send us your email address to go on the mailing list. Put this next date in your diary: Saturday 24 and Sunday 25 May in Bristol.

Our Day Will Come

A series of new songs sung by the Isle of Wight primary schools to celebrate who we are

Building on the music hub’s and English Heritage’s annual Vocal Prom at Carisbrook Castle which is an open-air public performance of young people’s voices Southampton & IOW Music and IW Cultural Education Partnership have commissioned a series of songs under the collective title Our Day Will Come as an expression of what it is to be a young person growing up on the island. Set within the context of a changing demographics and the consequent need to consolidate the number of primary schools this is an opportunity to both celebrate and champion the hopes of the almost 7000 young people currently in primary education here.

Songwriting workshops will take place during the spring term in identified schools giving young musicians the opportunity to express themselves through composition and write their own verses unique to their school.  The verses will be incorporated into the songbook resources produced and feature in the final performance.  Vocal workshops to introduce and learn the songbook material will also take place in all participating schools.  Alongside workshop activity digital resource will be created to support wider school singing, the national curriculum and SEND adaptations including CPD for teachers and practitioners reaching across the whole island. 

The project will culminate in a powerful massed singing event on the bowling green at Carisbrooke Castle on Thursday 12th June 2025 5.30pm – 7pm (reserve date for inclement weather Tuesday 17th June 2025) featuring young voices singing songs written by the participating schools, local artists and the island’s young musicians.  Friends and families are invited to come and watch on the raised areas around the green and bring a picnic.

4pm - 4.30pm School ensembles/groups arrive 

4.30pm - 5pm Sound checks 

5.30pm - 7pm Concert

We are continuing our collaboration with The New Carnival Company and have written a new Anthem for the Mardi gras this year ‘The Wheel of the Year’.

Schools signed up will receive a free singing workshop from the hub in the summer term to learn the song to sing it before the parade heads off on the day in July 2025.

You can listen to the track here and this will be added to our songbank along with a new Sign & Sing video to go alongside it in early June!

Schools choirs and music groups are invited to Osborne House on Monday 25th November for a carousel of Christmas activities!  You will have the opportunity to perform in the Durbar Room, have a tour of the ground floor of the house and take part in some Victorian Christmas craft activities. If take up is high we will also offer the opportunity for schools to take part the following week on 2nd December.

Your performances could include the new music hub Christmas songs from our songbook which we will learn in the workshop, something you have prepared for Christmas concerts or anything you have been working on this term - all are welcome!  We will not have a full band or sound set up sadly due to the delicate nature of the Durbar Room but we will be able to play backing tracks.  You are welcome to bring your own equipment too.  

Our proposed timings would be as follows:

9.15am - 9.30am Arrive / parents drop off gather school groups in the car park

9.30am - 9.45am Move to first workshop space 

9.45am - 10.30am Workshop 1 / tour

10.30am - 10.45am change over/break

10.45am - 11.30am Workshop 2 / tour

11.30am - 11.45am change over/break

11.45am - 12.30pm Workshop 3 / tour

12.30pm - 1.15pm Lunch break (bring packed lunch)

1.15pm - 1.30pm schools to Durbar Room

1.30pm - 2.15pm Performance in the Durbar Room

2.15pm Finish and schools leave and/or children are collected from the car park by parents

SIOW Music has collaborated with Sound Pop Academy to produce a digital songbook transcribing their brilliant 3 part harmony flexible arrangements of pop songs to share with secondary schools and sixth forms. The music hub and Sound Pop Academy will run a FREE CPD session in your school to introduce the songbook and arrangements and support singing across the Key Stages.

As part of this programme, you will be offered a free log in to the Vocal Kit online platform to continue using the resources following your workshop with backing tracks and a progression framework for vocal learning.

This project will run from January 2025 and through the Spring term.

We have an exciting and inspiring Hub Menu for schools and education settings.

Get in touch to hear about music opportunities for the children and young people you teach via our mailing list or use the buttons below to download a pdf of activities for your region.