Primary and secondary school pupils in part of Inverness were recently joined by professional musicians to take part in two public performances.
String pupils of all abilities from both Dalneigh Primary and Inverness High School – ranging in age from primary five to second year – were joined by a group of Scottish Ensemble musicians attending as part of their Inverness residency.
A workshop took place earlier in the school year to introduce pupils to a newly-commissioned piece, ‘Tempest,’ by James Redwood.
Last month, a whole-day workshop took place to put the piece together leading to two public performances at the end of the afternoon.
The string pupils, alongside the Scottish Ensemble musicians, gave their first performance to the rest of the school which was heavily applauded.
The Ensemble musicians then performed a selection of their own repertoire definitely giving the strings pupils something to aspire to while while the percussion and harpsichord provided a perhaps less-familiar, but very engaging sound to the audience.
At 3pm the public performance started and went even better than the first time. All the pupils were thoroughly exhausted but inspired, and very proud of their achievements, and all of the feedback was positive.
The Highland Council’s music development officer, Norman Bolton said: “This long term relationship between the school and Scottish Ensemble has been of great benefit to the strings project we run there as part of our Instrumental Tuition Service, and it is wonderful to see the development of the pupils involved and the relationships they have established with the professional musicians.”