With a special musical extravaganza

Pupils at Putney's Paddock School have enjoyed a musical extravaganza with conductor John Holland, Artistic Director of Cultural Olympiad project Cool Fusion.

John led sessions with two secondary-age classes at the school, which specialises in severe learning difficulties and Autism, demonstrating instruments which will be used in Cool Fusion's four performances of new music and drama inspired by London 2012. The sessions culminated in the pupils playing the instruments to re-create the stages of a race, from starting gun right through to an exhilarating, very noisy and triumphant finish.

Class teacher Libbit Osborne says:
“It was a wonderful opportunity for students to see such a range of new instruments and so exciting that they were actually allowed to play them. It was hard to put them down! When they recreated the imaginary race the students were given the chance to put their own feelings into the music and I felt that this really showed and some of their personalities really came across. Overall the sessions were very motivational and have inspired me to do more music with certain individuals who I saw a different side to during the workshops.”

During the sessions, John introduced the pupils to the trombone, clarinet, euphonium, bongo drums, wood blocks, cymbals and chimes, explaining the instruments' background and role in the band. The pupils explored how the instruments worked and the variety of sounds they produced.

John Holland, pictured left revealing the mystery of how to play a brass instrument, said:
“I had a fantastic morning with the students, who were engaged right from the start of each session, particularly liking the sound of the different instruments I’d brought along and enjoying playing them, too (some of them very loudly, which was brilliant fun!) It was fascinating to see how they responded to the idea of particular sounds relating to the various Olympic sports (tambourine for swimming, cymbal for diving, woodblocks for equestrian, etc.) and the imaginary race scene we created in each session was a particular highlight.”

The Cool Fusion team looks forward to welcoming Paddock School pupils at the project's Wandsworth performance on 4 August at St Mary's Church, Putney. Cool Fusion's other musical outreach projects with young people include primary-age children at Kids' Company in Lambeth and Camden, and young adults with learning disabilities at PIP – Pursuing Independent Paths in Westminster.