The world famous Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra has joined forces with Poole pupils to compose a special piece of music to commemorate the completion of the Twin Sails Bridge in Poole.
The world premiere of the piece was performed at Friday evening’s spectacular celebration event held in Hamworthy, Poole, to mark the completion of the £40 million Twin Sails project.
The piece was composed by Bournemouth Orchestra children’s composer Paul Rissmann, and includes lyrics written by pupils from Branksome Heath Middle School.
Andrew Burn, Head of Education and Ensembles at the orchestra, was delighted when Poole Borough Council suggested the collaboration.
“The orchestra really enjoy performing in something unusual, we’re thrilled the borough approached us and wanted us to be part of this very important celebration for the town,” said Mr Burn.
The orchestra’s Education and Community Administrator Linda Higson has been working with the children to compose the piece since January:
“We’ve got four local Poole schools involved, the main one being Branksome Heath Middle School, who actually wrote the lyrics. It’s a very exciting piece.”
Branksome Heath Middle School teacher Rachelle Kent helped the children to rehearse in the run-up to the event:
“We’ve been going to the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestras school concerts quite a lot, and we’ve always asked them if we can be involved with Paul Rissmann, who’s the composer of the piece of music for the Twin Sails.
“They contacted us and asked us if we’d like to be involved this time, and we said yes please! It’s a really good experience for the kids.”
Andrew Burn and Linda Higson discuss their involvement with local Poole schools and the inspiration behind the piece:
[audio:http://www.thebreaker.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/BournemouthSymphonyOrchestra1.mp3|titles=BournemouthSymphonyOrchestra]Click below to listen to a snippet of the children performing with the orchestra:
[audio:http://www.thebreaker.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/Twin-Sails-Performance_mixdown.mp3|titles=Twin Sails Performance]