Scottish Opera celebrates 50 years of pioneering Outreach and Education work

To celebrate the 50th anniversary year of its Outreach and Education programme, Scottish Opera announces new projects to connect with communities across Scotland!

Article Source: Scottish Opera
Last Updated: 26 April 2021 11:16

To celebrate the 50th anniversary of its ground-breaking Outreach and Education programme department, Scottish Opera has announced further projects to bring music and performance into the lives of people across the country. From digital initiatives for primary schools and a new production from the Scottish Opera Young Company to breathing exercises for people recovering from the effects of Covid-19, the projects build on Scottish Opera’s pioneering work over the past five decades and its ongoing engagement with communities throughout the pandemic and beyond.

The first of its kind and oldest outreach and education unit of any opera company in Europe, the department was formed in 1971 under the leadership of Scottish Opera’s founder Sir Alexander Gibson. Its ethos is to break down barriers to the artform, connect communities and inspire people from all backgrounds through opera. A trailblazer in community arts engagement across Scotland and internationally, it has played a seminal role in the educational experiences of generations of Scottish people and has developed into a year-round programme of youth and community projects. From its renowned Primary Schools Tour – which has engaged over half a million children in the arts across all 32 Scottish local authority areas, working with 9,000 pupils from over 130 schools every year – to its innovative operas for infants and ground-breaking work with people living with dementia, it creates meaningful and transformative experiences for people of all ages, backgrounds and abilities.

In the department’s 50th year, as the world continues to navigate the unprecedented and critical impact of the pandemic, it will for the first time offer a package of projects for Primary 1 to 7 simultaneously, giving schools the opportunity to engage all pupils in a Scottish Opera primary schools project at the same time. A cross-curricular and interdisciplinary digital project for Primary 1 to 3, The Brassketeers introduces children to brass instruments whilst also supporting delivery of the Early and First Level numeracy curriculum. Resources include an animated short film performed by members of The Orchestra of Scottish Opera, alongside lesson plans, slide shows, worksheets and games which explore the relationship between music and maths. Aimed at Primary 3 to 4 pupils, digital storybook project Tiny Chef introduces Mandarin language skills alongside concepts of food preparation and healthy eating. Created in collaboration with the Confucius Institute for Scotland's Schools, over several weeks the Company worked with children to develop musical, artistic and narrative ideas which were developed by a composer, librettist and illustrator into the digital storybook, which is now available online. For older children, digital performance project The Last Aliens invites Primary 5 to 7 pupils on an intergalactic adventure to save Planet Earth and engage with the topic of climate change as Scotland prepares to host the 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference in Glasgow (COP26) later this year. With an opera of five songs for pupils to learn, teachers will be given a set of lesson plans, audio guides and demonstration films to explore the main topics, and teach music and movement, along with ideas for making props and costumes. There are also plans for digital collaborations with schools internationally and The Last Aliens live tour in the Autumn, should visiting groups to schools be allowed under Scottish Government Covid-19 guidelines. Digital resources for the projects are available on the Scottish Opera website and are free to all until January 2022.

Continuing its engagement with primary schools and in its role as the first Scottish partner of Disney Musicals in Schools, Scottish Opera will resume its work with five primary schools, each of whom will produce its own Disney KIDS musical over the next two years. Workshops will take place online from 10 May. The Company will also contribute to the Scottish Book Trust’s pilot scheme for schools, Arts Alive, with a project called Song Squad mentoring primary school aged singers and songwriters to create, perform and record a set of their own songs to reflect on issues that are important to them, their school and their community.

Meanwhile, Scottish Opera’s work with older pupils in secondary schools includes the creation of resources relating to a sequence of filmed scenes in three contrasting stagings, directed by Roxana Haines, of Donizetti’s L'elisir d'amore as part of the Scottish Opera: On Screen collection. Available to schools in Spring 2022, the resources will encourage critical analysis from secondary school pupils studying Music, Art & Design and Theatre Studies.

Outside the digital classroom, Scottish Opera remains dedicated to supporting emerging talent in Scotland and providing aspiring singers and stage managers with a unique and practical introduction to the world of opera through its Scottish Opera Young Company (SOYC). In this 50th anniversary year, the latest cohort of the youth talent training and performance programme will perform a new production by Roxana Haines of Kurt Weill’s The Tsar Has His Photograph Taken, marking the first time the Young Company has been back on stage since April 2019. Rehearsals are underway via Zoom and will culminate in outdoor performances in the car park of the Company’s Edington Street Production Studios in Glasgow on 31 July and 1 August. The Young Company will also give the world premiere in 2022 of Rubble, a new work by composer Gareth Williams and Scottish theatre legend Johnny McKnight, commissioned for the department’s milestone anniversary.

A leading advocate of the contribution arts can make to health and wellbeing, Scottish Opera staged the UK’s first ever dementia friendly opera performance in 2016 and continues to work closely with people living with dementia. Its community-based music and dementia project Memory Spinners hopes to reinstate its weekly group meetings in Glasgow in Spring 2022 and dementia friendly performances will also return, when Scottish Government guidelines allow, to run alongside full-length performances in Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen, presenting fully-staged shortened versions of productions specially created to provide a more relaxed opera experience. As an interim support for people suffering the effects of Covid-19, the Company has also repurposed its Breath Cycle project – originally created in partnership with Gartnavel General Hospital respiratory ward and patients with Cystic Fibrosis – to offer free singing tutorials designed to assist with breath control. Materials and further information can be found here. In a further advancement of Breath Cycle, a team of artists has now begun developmental work on a new project which will culminate in the creation of a song collection for and by people affected by Covid-19. Combining singing and breath control techniques, song writing workshops for members of the public will take place in the Autumn culminating in a presentation of the project in Summer 2022.

The impact of music and creative expression on health and wellbeing will continue to be explored by the Company in a new community exhibition project with The Abbotsford Trust, Live Borders! & East Lothian Council Arts. As part of the Sir Walter Scott 250 celebrations in 2021-22 and inspired by the title character in Donizetti’s opera Lucia di Lammermoor, itself based on Sir Walter Scott’s novel The Bride of Lammermoor, Sweet Sounds in Wild Places will explore loneliness, isolation and lack of empowerment, as well as the impact, for good or bad, that landscape and environment can have on mental health and wellbeing. The project will run from Autumn 2021.

All of these initiatives build on the work Scottish Opera has done over the past year to continue connecting with communities, adapting its projects for the digital world and offering positive musical experiences and support for those suffering from the impact of the pandemic. Updated and modified for online participation in response to lockdown, Fever!, a much-loved former Primary Schools Tour production, explores topical themes of virology and microbiology. It became Scottish Opera’s first online opera for children, initially made available to Scottish schools, with accompanying teaching resources, before attracting international participants from more than 60 different countries and later culminating in a nationwide virtual performance. For toddlers, the company’s popular Fox-tot! which uses a mix of music and puppetry was also reproduced for online during lockdown, offering a collection of games, music, choreography and simple sign language lessons. From early years through to projects for adults, the Company provides life-long learning for all ages and its Community Choir has continued to meet online via Zoom throughout the pandemic, giving people of all ages the chance to come together every week to perform a mix of opera, classical, popular, folk and world music.

Scottish Opera continues to reach communities right across Scotland with its renowned Pop-up Opera roadshow which travels across the country to bring opera to local communities in a specially adapted trailer. Its critically acclaimed Summer 2020 tour marked an important milestone for the Company as it became Scotland’s first national performing arts company to stage performances for a live audience following the first lockdown. For its 2021 tour it will condense five Gilbert & Sullivan shows – The Pirates of Penzance, The Gondoliers, The Mikado, HMS Pinafore and Iolanthe – into re-written 25 minute performances, with plans in place for the roadshow to begin by 8 June subject to Scottish Government guidelines, to audiences of over 12,000. The final leg of the tour, running throughout September, will offer a double bill of shows including the Pirates of Penzance and a revival of A Little Bit of Bubble McBea. Aimed at children in Primary 1 to 3, Bubble McBea deals with environmental issues in the coasts around Scotland, and will raise awareness of sea pollution in the run up to the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow.

The Company hopes to build on the digital developments it has made during the pandemic and the potential this offers to engage with more schools and communities. It has become a Challenge Holder in the Creative Informatics Challenge (CIC), run by the University of Edinburgh which aims to develop a new and interactive approach for evaluating the Company’s work in primary schools. Further details will be announced in the coming months.

Scottish Opera’s Director of Outreach and Education, Jane Davidson, who has worked with the department since 1984, said: “Since 1971, Scottish Opera has remained committed to its mission of engaging and enriching the lives of people from all corners of Scotland through opera. In these uncertain and difficult times, never has this commitment been so crucial and the need for positive and supportive musical experiences been as vital. We are incredibly proud and excited to be at the start of the journey to bring live music back to the Scottish audiences of all ages. While the opportunities for digital interaction with our work continues to evolve and develop, it’s the combination of passion and sheer joy for sharing stories through music that will continue to drive us for the next 50 years.”

For information about Scottish Opera’s Outreach and Education programme visit www.scottishopera.org.uk. Further announcements including the return of in person workshops will be made in the coming months.

Image Credit: Glasgow Herald

Got a story to share? Send us an email at hello[@]whatsonnetwork.co.uk

Latest Glasgow News

Breaking the Silence Gig: Last Minute Tickets available for Oran Mor

Last-minute tickets are still available for JJ “Jinky” Gilmour’s Breaking the Silence show at Oran Mor on Thursday 27th November.

Santa clocks in early: Scotland shift heroes among 30,000 invited to claim free festive meal

Greene King pubs is raising the spirits of Scotland's hardest workers this festive season, hosting 'The Big Christmas Shift' across 700 pubs nationwide, giving away 30,000 meals on Monday 1st December

Festive days out to make the most of the season

From wreath-making workshops through to New Year’s Eve street parties, here's a rounded up some of the best events to help make the most of the season with loved ones in a fun and creative way.

SAY Award winner announced as Kai Reesu

Kai Reesu’s ‘KOMPROMAT vol.i’ was tonight announced as winner of The Scottish Album of the Year (SAY) Award, as the country’s national music prize Ceremony took place in Dundee’s Caird Hall.

Flight Club Glasgow launches limited edition Winter Menu and Festive Brunch

Flight Club Glasgow kicks off Christmas party season with the unveiling of its specially curated limited-edition menu and festive celebration-worthy bottomless brunch.

Citizens Theatre announces Associate Companies and Artists programme plus new shows for 2026

The Citizens Theatre has announced a new initiative to support and collaborate with artists and theatre companies, alongside more productions in its reopening year.

Glasgow Kelvin College hosts Big Scottish Breakfast and beauty event for STV Childrens Appeal

Glasgow Kelvin College students dished up community spirit in style earlier this month, raising £700 for the STV Children's Appeal through a Big Scottish Breakfast and beauty event.

Aldi opens applications for Christmas food donations programme in Glasgow

Aldi is calling on charities, community groups and food banks in Glasgow to sign up for surplus food donations from its stores this Christmas.

Public vote opens for Scottish Jazz Awards 2025 as scene flourishes

A stellar lineup of nominees has been announced for the Scottish Jazz Awards 2025, showcasing the exceptional talent flourishing across Scotland's vibrant jazz scene.

From Pop to Print: Bobby Bluebell Unveils Forevermore at Glasgow Print Studio

Glasgow Print Studio is delighted to announce the launch of Forevermore, a new limited-edition print by Bobby Bluebell.

Winter Wonderland at St Enoch Square set to open this Thursday

Glasgow's Winter Wonderland gets underway this week with the opening of St Enoch Square on Thursday 6th November from 12 noon until 9pm.

The Christmas tradition of the year is back...

Scotland's biggest Christmas drive-in returns: 11 days of Elf, Home Alone & more at Loch Lomond Shores!

Have a merry little Christmas at Glasgow Science Centre

Make this winter one to remember at Glasgow Science Centre! Discover a line-up of unmissable seasonal events packed with science, wonder and festive fun!

Four top chefs in Glasgow team up to raise money for Hospitality Health

Four of Glasgow's top chefs are teaming up on Thursday 13th November to host a charity dinner for Glasgow based charity, Hospitality Health.

Go to Christmas market for locally made gifts returns to Glasgow city centre

Mary's Meals' much-loved market – where your Christmas shopping can help feed hungry children – returns at The Social Hub this November!

Peter Kay announces triumphant return to the OVO Hydro next year

Extra tickets released including premium seats to celebrate his record-breaking stand-up tour.

Unfolded brings sustainable pop up shop and sample sale back to Glasgow for one weekend only at the iconic Buchanan Galleries

Groundbreaking Scottish sustainable ladies fashion brand Unfolded is returning to the heart of Glasgow and the homeland of ladies fashion for one weekend only.

Martin Compston to bring star power to Hoolie in the Hydro as co host

Celebrated Scottish actor Martin Compston has been announced as the co-host for this year's highly anticipated Hoolie in the Hydro: The Big Yin.

Buchanan Galleries marks Purple Tuesday with Charity Partnerships

Buchanan Galleries is marking Purple Tuesday, on 4th November, with a series of initiatives designed to champion accessibility and inclusion within the centre.

Pizza Punks is coming to town with an all new door to door delivery service

Pizza Punks Glasgow have revealed a revolutionary new service, door to door delivery, and to celebrate, the pizza scene disrupters are offering 50% off your first order!

Reward offered for return of Elvis artwork stolen from The Clutha Bar in Glasgow

The Clutha Bar and local artist Moe Rocksmoore are appealing for the safe return of Elvis, a much-loved artwork created by children and young people from Glasgow and Renfrewshire schools.

Book Tales: Storytelling through the lives of readers past and present

This November, the University of Glasgow and The Mitchell Library invite you to explore the rich and historical life of books in a series of engaging Being Human Festival.

First Bus gives Remembrance free travel for all Armed Forces, veterans and cadets

First Bus is offering free travel for all veterans and UK Armed Forces personnel travelling to Remembrance Day activities of Remembrance Sunday and Armistice Day.

Scotland Meats Germany

Scotland's favourite beer, Tennent's Lager, has unveiled the world's first ever Square Wurst - a Scottish classic with a German twist - to mark the launch of Tennent's Bavarian Pilsner.

Cineworld Glasgow Silverburn unveils luxury recliners and immersive 4DX experience

Cineworld Glasgow Silverburn has just completed a major transformation, introducing luxury recliner seating and an immersive 4DX auditorium!

Scottish Ensemble brings warmth to wintry nights with Concerts by Candlelight tour

Concert by Candlelight, Scottish Ensemble's celebrated long-running winter tour, returns for eight awe-inspiring performances in intimate settings around Scotland this December.

Crossbasket Castle unveils festive events for 2025

As the festive season approaches, five-star Scottish castle, Crossbasket Castle, has unveiled its calendar of seasonal events and experiences.

Feel the festive cheer at Dobbies Charity Christmas Shopping Night

Dobbies is encouraging customers to come along to their nearest store and to be the first to shop exclusive Black Friday offers at its late-night shopping event, in aid of Alzheimer's Research UK.

Autumn Offers at Marine & Lawn Hotels & Resorts Collection

Marine & Lawn Hotels & Resorts Collection have launched new offerings designed to inspire cosy autumn getaways and early festive escapes across Scotland.