Learning & Participation at the 2025 Festival

Schools Concert – Thursday 9 October
This year’s School’s Concert was the culmination of an ambitious composition project with Howe Dell Primary School.  Professional jazz musician, Pete Letanka, spent four days at the school working with two classes of Year 6 pupils on a mix of excerpts from The Messiah and their own compositions inspired by the work.

Pete then worked with jazz musicians from the Purcell School who accompanied the Howe Dell pupils. These pieces were then performed to an audience of 170 people made up of pupils and staff from Hadley Wood Primary School, Birchwood Avenue Primary School, Oak View Primary School and St Philip Howard Primary School at the Schools Concert. Three of these schools were new contacts for the Festival.

Feedback from Howe Dell was extremely positive. Krisztina Joo, one of the Year 6 teachers shared what a big impact the project had on the children – even a month later, the children are still humming the Hallelujah Chorus. Many of the children do not listen to Classical music outside of school, so the fact the children remember the music is seen as very positive. Krisztina thought Pete’s approach was tailored to the children’s needs and brought out the best in the pupils. She felt that Pete’s sessions were inclusive of all the children with “movement breaks” included to help the children with their focus. His choice of soloists / narrators and instrument allocation was stated as choosing “the right children for the right instruments”.

The project also served as Continuing Professional Development for the staff as they took ideas away to include in their own practice.

“Our Year 5 class had a wonderful time and they all left feeling very excited about their own music lessons after watching the Year 6 children perform.  May I please send a huge well done to the Year 6 children and The Purcell School students. They clearly worked very hard and it was a joy to hear them sing and play their instruments.” Daisy Cornes, Music Lead at Hadley Wood Primary School

Family Concert – Saturday 11 October
The Family Concert was performed by young musicians from the Purcell School, conducted by Paul Hoskins and hosted by Maria.

The programme included Poulenc Mouvements perpetuels arranged for wind and strings, Poulenc Intermezzo from Violin Sonata, Godefroid Etude de concert for solo harp, Ravel Ondine for solo piano, Mozart Minuet and finale from Divertimento K 213 arranged for wind quintet, Ravel Minuet from Le tombeau de Couperin arranged for wind quintet and Robert Saxton Tombeau de Ravel.

All audience members were given a printed programme for the concert which included a list of the works and performers, a word search and some music fun facts. We received very positive feedback on the word search!

The concert was hosted by Maria who introduced the various instruments with demonstrations from the Purcell School students and engaged the audience in body percussion activities and pretending to play the instruments. Paul Hoskins also spoke to the audience about the role of the conductor.

The programme was designed around a new work by Robert Saxton which was given its second performance at the Festival.

Positive feedback was given about how inspirational it was for the children in the audience to see fellow young people performing.

Come & Sing – Saturday 10 October
The Come and Sing event led by Harry Bradford covered a range of Handel Choruses. Initial plans had suggested choruses only from The Messiah but this was adapted to cover a range of works both popular and lesser known:

The Pleasure of the Plains from Acis and Galatea

Ritorni Omai from Giulio Cesare

Let Justice and Judgement (from Let Thy Hand be Strengthened) Coronation Anthem

Let Their Celestial Concerts from Samson

Hallelujah Chorus from the Messiah

Forty singers booked in for this event, ranging from people who had attended last year, some who sing in Harry’s local Choir and some who were new to Come and Sing events.

The participants thoroughly enjoyed the event and many left with the words “see you next year!”

Young Musicians’ Platform – Sunday 11 October
On Sunday, we had two performances: Brook William Charles, a member of Musicale who performed swing and pop songs to backing tracks, and a string quartet of young musicians from Hitchin performed a range of popular works.

Visit to Acacia Mews Care Home – Wednesday 24 September
Maria is keen to develop HHMF’s L&P work to encompass a wider range of participants, therefore a visit to Acacia Mews Care Home in Hatfield was arranged for a music session for their residents with Dementia and Parkinson’s. This included live performance, singing and playing percussion instruments.

We would like to thank everyone who made our Learning & Participation programme possible this year. Harpenden Music Foundation for their donation, The Red Lion for feeding our young performers across two days, Musicale for helping us to promote the events and sourcing a performer for the Young Musicians’ Platform, and the team at St Etheldreda’s Church.

If you would be interested in making a donation towards this project or sponsoring a workshop project in a Hertfordshire school, please contact Learning & Participation Manager, Maria Thomas, maria@hatfieldhousemusicfestival.org.uk.