Music picks up the pace at Greyfriars School

Internationally renowned musicians Ian Mitchell and Caroline Balding from the Gemini ensemble will be running workshops next week at a local Primary School ahead of their King’s Lynn Festival concert at the Town Hall.

The workshops will explore different musical tempos and use various instruments to create a ‘call to attention’.  Greyfriars’ pupils will be encouraged to make up their own short fanfare with help from Norfolk Music Hub’s Jessica Berners and local composer Jane Wells, to be performed both at the school and the beginning of the Gemini Ensemble concert on Friday 27 November at 7.30pm.

Gemini Director Ian Mitchell who plays clarinet, said “I am delighted to be bringing Gemini’s mix of classical music performance and educational workshops to King’s Lynn.  We have been running these events successfully throughout Europe and as far afield as Taiwan, Australia and the Middle East.”  Formerly Senior Lecturer in Music Performance and University Director of Music at Exeter University, Ian was until recently Head of the Wind, Brass and Percussion Department at London’s Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance.

The Gemini’s concert will feature a varied programme with the first half being especially suitable as an introduction to classical music. There are works by Beethoven and Mozart as well as cheerful compositions from 20th century Darius Milhaud and Alan Ridout’s Ferdinand The Bull, a virtuoso violin piece which tells the children’s story of a bull who preferred to smell flowers rather than take part in bullfights.

There are still tickets available for the concert, priced at £14 for adults and £7 for under 18s, from the King’s Lynn Corn Exchange Box Office on 01553 764864.   Click here for further details and to book.