Schools across the West Midlands meting up again – virtually – on Friday 27 March for the Big Play, an uplifting day celebrating children’s music-making across the region and the culmination of Big Month of Music.
Prior to closure, schools with whole class instrumental lessons had been working with their local Music Service to film ‘One Minute of Music’ in their classroom. Over 150 films have been submitted and, between 9am and 5pm on Friday 27 March, a ‘One Minute of Music’ film was released every three minutes on the West Midlands Music Twitter @WestMidlandsMu1 and Facebook @WestMidlandsMusiceducation feeds.
A professional film about the Big Play was also shown during the day and Young Ambassadors were boosting the Instagram channel @Westmidsmusic and doing social media takeovers throughout the day.
In addition, on Monday 31 March, West Midlands Music social media channels will show short films of children’s classroom singing from schools which had planned to perform at the Big Sing. The professional-standard singing event had been scheduled for 16 March at Symphony Hall but was cancelled as a result of the coronavirus outbreak.
The Big Play is the grand finale of Big Month of Music, a large-scale region-wide event celebrating young people’s musical achievements and inspiring further musical discoveries.
Big Month of Music is the first major project of West Midlands Music – a unique collective of all 14 of the region’s Music Services, and the largest of its kind in the UK – and designed as a snapshot of their work.
Chris Jones, Chair of West Midlands Music and Head of Dudley Performing Arts said “Big Play is a massive, uplifting, day of young people’s musical achievements, celebrating the power of music and the joy it brings, perhaps especially in challenging times, and bringing together pupils from across the region in a unique event.”
