Following our successful National Orchestra for All (NOFA) Summer Course in July 2017 and building on the Winter Sessions model of 2016, we will be dividing our 100-strong orchestra into three smaller ensembles, working in London, the Midlands and Scotland. Each ensemble will be assigned one of the movements from the Copland Dance Suite and, led by regional professional ensembles and workshop leader, Fraser Trainer, develop a collective musical response. As in 2016, the idea will be to facilitate youth-led collective creativity allowing the young people of NOFA to draw on their own interpretations of dance music and explore what this might mean to them.
We are looking forward to seeing our 2017/2018 National Orchestra for All members at one of the three forthcoming Winter Sessions, which are taking place at the following locations:
Warwick Arts Centre, Coventry
Saturday 4 and Sunday 5 November
Cecil Sharp House, London
Saturday 25 and Sunday 26 November
Dance Base, Edinburgh -
Saturday 9 and Sunday 10 December
NOFA is collaborating with One Dance UK in order to engage with partner dance organisations located near each of the three Winter Sessions. These dance partners will work alongside the orchestra and choreographer Sarah Dowling to improvise and create dances to music that will go forward to be performed at the Spring Course in April. Alongside this, the orchestra will be supported by the following musical partners from each location:
Warwick: Birmingham Contemporary Music Group
London: Ensemble Eroica
Edinburgh: Scottish Chamber Orchestra
Fraser Trainer, who worked with NOFA on the 2016 Winter Sessions, will return again this year to navigate the groups through the landscape of improvisation and performance alongside a new artistic genre. Throughout the course of each Winter Session, dancers and orchestral players will come together to share ideas and approaches. The end result will be performed to each other as well as to invited friends and family at the end of the two-day course.
Sign up for your free ticket for the sharing event on Sunday at 4pm below:
