Film Music Workshops for Children

The Ark, viewed from Meeting House Square, Dublin.

Film Music Workshops for Children

The Ark, the cultural centre for children in Temple Bar, Dublin, is hosting a series of music workshops in May and June for children of various ages, with many of the workshops engaging with aspects of film music.

The Small Sounds Workshops, aimed at children aged between two and four, are ‘especially created to let the very young discover the joy of music’, with each workshop lasting around forty-five minutes. Facilitators include the pianist Elaine Loebenstein, the composer Karen Power, traditional musician Thomas Johnston, the guitarist Eamon Sweeney, the saxophonist and composer Nick Roth and the composer Judith Ring.

Loebenstein will also run the Not-So-Silent Movies workshop for children aged five to twelve, in which children will create their own music inspired by silent cartoons. These workshops will culminate in a performance; children participating do not need previous musical experience but should bring an instrument if they play one.

Surprising Sounds in Technicolor (also for ages five to twelve) is a workshop led by Karen Power in which participants will ‘discover the musical potential hidden in all kinds of objects’. Using the color in films as inspiration, children taking part will create their own soundscapes for film.

The composer Brian Irvine — who has written music for Sesame Street — will also be running a workshop in which participants create a new film score. In What’s the Score, again for children aged five to twelve, Irvine uses film ‘to inspire you to create your own outrageous and imaginative improvised musical ideas’.

Nick Roth and Judith Ring will run the Making Music for Outer Space workshop, in which children (aged five to twelve) will write film music using electronic sounds.

The series of workshops is accompanied by two live performances, including Harry Bird and the Rubber Wellies on 16 June, described as ‘joyful cabaret of sing-a-long choruses and music populated by pirates, lizards, cracks in the wall, hummingbirds and Basque cyclists’, and the Iberian Percussion Extravaganza on 29 June, in association with the Big Bang Festival.

theark.ie

Published on 8 May 2013

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