HIP’s learning and participation programme in schools continues to grow and flourish and has now reached more than 500 children in Hastings. Last week, workshop leader Sam Glazer and HIP pianist Rose Mclachlan inspired 20 key stage 2 students at St Paul’s CE Academy: “You are the best people in the whole wide world, please come back soon!” one student exclaimed. 

The workshop offered a fun introduction to both classical music and musical composition. The children enjoyed Rose’s performance of Mozart’s Piano Sonata No.18  to which they listened intently and consequently had lots to say: “I was really fascinated listening to that. It made me feel confused, it was happy and then sad”. The children didn’t hide how impressed they were by Rose’s skills: “Are you an Alien?”, “How do you play so fast?”, “I give you a score of a million trillion!”.  

After some musical games and warmup activities, the students were given the opportunity to sing on their own, accompanied by Sam on Cello and Rose on piano. Their teacher Miss Watson was surprised by some of the students who volunteered, saying “I’ve never seen them put themselves out there like that; they’ve faced a lot of challenges in the past, and so for them to be thriving and feeling so confident was just fantastic to see!”. 

For their song composition, the pupils chose the theme and song title to be their school motto, Let Your Light Shine. They explained that the motto is about being the best that you can be and letting your talents and gifts show to the world. They wrote lyrics, experimented with a range of rhythms and melodies, and later added percussion instruments to create a 5-minute-long piece. Sam introduced their final performance as the world premiere of Let Your Light Shine. Their enthusiasm and pride when performing the song was testament to the brilliant work they’d achieved in only a day.  

“Can we do this every week?” one student asked as they were leaving. The success of the workshop has certainly sparked conversations for longer-term projects in the future. And who knows, maybe the spark ignited will lead to Hastings’ own Paul McCartney…