Musical Stories
Commissioning
In 2021, Concerteenies was awarded a Small Projects grant by Arts Council England to create five new Musical Stories for 0-5 year old children. We commissioned composer Paul Rissmann to write these pieces based on existing children's books for professional solo instrumentalists and narrator Polly Ives;
The Dinosaur Department Store by Lily Murray and Richard Merritt, composed for narrator and solo cello
The Dog Who Could Dig by Jonathon Long and Korky Paul, composed for narrator and solo marimba
Mixed by Arree Chung, composed for narrator and solo harp
Mouse and Bear by Kev Payne, composed for narrator, solo B flat clarinet and bass clarinet
Perfectly Norman by Tom Percival, composed for narrator and solo viola
These Musical Stories were piloted in 10 performances at nurseries in partnership with SSELP in April 2021. All performances featured image projections, and we created cross-curricular learning resources and activities to accompany each book, designed to provide ideas to explore with children before and after they watch the Musical Story.
We streamed online performances to Sheffield Children's Hospital and to schools in partnership with Sheffield Music Hub and they are now accessible to the general public on our YouTube channel.
We’re grateful to Arts Council England, Sheffield South East Learning Partnership, Sheffield Music Hub, the Sheffield Grammar School Exhibition Foundation and the Freshgate Foundation Trust providing funding for this project.
South Yorkshire Tour
Between October 2022 and June 2023, Concerteenies delivered a series of ‘Musical Stories’ live music events in education settings and public spaces across South Yorkshire, featuring professional solo instrumentalists, illustrated and narrated story-telling, and interactive singing and music-making. The project aimed to explore how this work could have a lasting impact in under-served communities. Concerteenies commissioned SPARC Consultancy, based at the University of Sheffield, to evaluate the impact of the events on the children, parents / carers, musicians and staff involved. SPARC’s full report is available here.
♫ 84 live music events took place in 64 venues across Barnsley, Doncaster, Rotherham and Sheffield.
♫ The project reached 41 schools and nurseries (73% of which were new to working with Concerteenies), and family venues including theatres, libraries, a museum, a pub, a playground, a nightclub and a shopping centre.
♫ 6,094 children and grown ups took part in the live music events.
♫ The majority of nursery / school participants were 3-7 years, while family events reached people from c. 6 months to 90+ years and included some family groups spanning four generations.
♫ 5 inset sessions for teachers took place.
♫ The Musical Stories were performed by nine instrumentalists (marimba, cello, clarinet / bass clarinet, and harp) and three creative practitioners (narrators / leaders / education specialists). The instrumentalists and creative practitioners were 50% early career artists and 50% experienced / established, and 50% female and 50% male. Two were from global majority backgrounds.
♫ The project recruited six volunteers, of whom half had special educational needs or disabilities (SEND).
♫ The Musical Stories learning and SEND support resources and YouTube films were viewed over 3,000 times in the last year.
♫ The project worked collaboratively with 22 partner organisations (95% for the first time) this year, including:
SEND: Famlingo for British Sign Language (BSL) interpretation at 3 concerts and 3 SEND specialists to create SEND support packs and ‘Walk-round’ films.
Venues: including Leadmill nightclub, Greystones Backroom, Victoria Hall, Kelham Island Museum in Sheffield. Cast Theatre, The Point, Frenchgate in Doncaster, 10 Barnsley Libraries, Civic Theatre (Barnsley), Rotherham Theatres, Grimm&Co. And Wath Festival
Organisations: LCEPs; Fusion (Barnsley), Create Sheffield, Imagine Rotherham. The four SY Music Hubs. Ignite Imaginations.
SY Local Authorities: including museums, heritage, culture, libraries, learning, and children’s services including ‘Family Hubs’, ‘Looked After Children’ and ‘Early Years Inclusion’.
♫ The project attracted 11 pieces of regional press coverage (including Yorkshire Post, BBC Radio Sheffield and most regional papers), most of these for the first time.
This stage of the Musical Stories project was funded by Arts Council England, Sarah Nulty Power of Music Foundation, Sheffield Church Burgesses Trust, Sheffield Grammar School Exhibition Foundation, and Sheffield Town Trust.
2023-2024
Concerteenies is thrilled to have received funding from the PRS Foundation’s The Open Fund to commission two more Musical Stories from composer, Paul Rissmann. Watch this space for more information!
Polly Ives and Paul Rissmann
