Welcome to Deal Festival of Music and Arts 2012 - 29th June to 8th July

Education for 2011

We are delighted that our partnership with the Astor Community Theatre has strengthened and is reflected in this year’s Young Performer’s Platform that brings together a diversity of musical styles and genres, along with a stimulating, innovative and broad spectrum of other events, outlined below.

Work experience:
Joshua Newman from Sir Roger Manwood’s School, Sandwich, will be working with the Festival team on all aspects of Festival organisation and presentation.  Bursary Winner Emily Adams will return for her third year and will be given a greater area of responsibilities ranging from box office assistance to stage management and artist hospitality.

 
New Eden Studio Music Competition 2011:
The ‘New Eden Recording’ Studio at St Edmund’s Catholic School in partnership with Dover Rotary and the Deal Festival of Music and the Arts invites musicians to come and take part in this year’s Music Competition open to all solo instrumentalists, singers and composers. This is to be held in the New Eden Studio at St Edmund’s Catholic School Dover from Monday 20th June to Thursday 23rd June 2011.  Prizes include a half-day recording session with mastered CD and free entrance to your next Trinity Guildhall Grade examination.  Beginners, Intermediate and Advanced categories for ages up to 20. For further information and an application form please call Graham Harvey on 01304 229345. The finals will be held in Dover Town Hall on Thursday 23rd June at 7.30pm and the winners will be invited to perform at the 'Young Performers Platform' at the Astor Community Theatre on Saturday 25th June as an integral part of the Deal Festival of Music & the Arts.


Students entertain:
The Hornbeam Primary School Samba Band – Directed by Neil Wright will perform on Deal Seafront on the first Saturday morning of the Festival.  With music at their fingertips, this dynamic group played to great acclaim at last year's Festival at the invitation of the Ferry Company LD Lines.

Canterbury Christ Church University Big Band - Directed by Mike Hamnett are also playing on the first Saturday and will entertain with swing classics, Ellington and Count Basie.


Young Performers Platform:
A regular event with Deal Festival but this year with a slightly different emphasis and embracing a wider than before span of local musically gifted young people: New Eden Studio Music Competition Dover winners, Stagecatz Musical Youth Theatre Training and Deal Parochial Church of England Primary School Choir join forces to celebrate Kent’s fame as the Garden of England.

Family Concerts:
The first of two Family Concerts at The Astor Community Theatre will happen on Sunday 26th June at 11.00 am when the Artistic Director of Glyndebourne's 'Opera Experience', Dominic Harlan and Festival Artistic Director, Matthew Sharp (whose pioneering performances for 5 – 95 year olds at the Wigmore Hall, Glyndebourne, SBC and the Barbican were a roaring success) will share a no-holds-barred, white-knuckle adventure into song, stories and the hidden secrets of music! This concert is for anyone between the ages of 5 - 95. Participants will help stage an aria, discover the mysteries of the Dark Huntsman, decide whether Romeo DOES get his Juliet, even write a song!

The second Family Concert will be at The Astor Community Theatre on Sunday 3rd July at 3.00 pm when Matthew Sharp will narrate a  programme to include Martin Butler’s “Dirty Beasts”, “Ferdinand The Bull”, Copland’s “I bought me a Cat” and other beastly delights.  Performers will include former  Deal Bursary Winner, jazz and classical keyboard & voice talent Jamie Rogers.

Singing Workshops in Schools:
Three primary schools will have two workshops each where an animateur will help them to compose a song.  Support for this will be given by musician John Harper, member of the Festival Education Sub-Committee and with a lifetime of experience in revealing to school-children the fun to be had in making music. These songs will be performed during an intriguing walk between Deal and Walmer Castles as part of the Deal Festival.    During the walk children and parents will discover the names, nicknames, odd tales told & strange beliefs held about this historic protected stretch of coast, the seabirds who patrol it, the butterflies who rely on its riotous wild flowers, Julius Caesar, King Henry VIII and many more surprises.   

 
Workshops on marine conservation:
“Living Underwater” - a personal creative writing workshop for children led by Sir Andrew Motion, the former Poet Laureate.  In collaboration with The Pines Calyx, Sir Andrew Motion will reflect on The Pines poetry path and engage local school-children in creative, inter-active poetry sessions on the magnificent subject of cetaceans, messages & love songs uniting man and mammal from shore to shore.

“A Whale of a Time” - An Introduction to Gentle Giants and other Marine Creatures. In a collaboration with The Pines Calyx, St Margarets at Cliffe,  Cait Cochrane, a British Divers Marine Life Rescue mammal medic and volunteer warden for foreshore services will give interactive workshops with children on the subject of marine conservation and invite them to discover some fascinating facts about the amazing  whales, dolphins and porpoises whose kingdom is the ocean.

“Blue seas cover seven-tenths of the earth’s surface, And are the domain of the largest brain ever created, With a fifty-million-year-old smile.” (From: the poem Whale Nation by Heathcote Williams)

Composition Project:
Over six weeks (Spring and Summer terms 2011) animateurs, supported by selected local teachers and University students will work with eight groups from Secondary Schools in Deal and Dover to generate music, composition and performance.  Three sessions would have face to face involvement from successful and pioneering composers.   Three sessions would be with a leading String Quartet and Matthew Sharp.  The project would, in addition to composition, give an in-depth experience of chamber music plus the vocal and instrumental skills of the participants would also be encouraged and harnessed.  The aspiration for the process is that it would be active, creative, challenging, hugely enjoyable and fulfilling.  Deal Festival offers a platform for the work at both the launch of the festival and the festival itself.