Projects
Sonopera®CIC devises and facilitates bespoke music and sound projects for a variety of clients in music education. Here are some ongoing and recent examples.
Landscapes and Seascapes
In this project funded by Ivy Education Trust, Patrick Staturley and Elfyn Jones worked with eight schools in the Trust to create songs celebrating the rich diversity of landscapes and seascapes around the Trust's schools. The primary schools involved were Kenn C of E Primary School, Kenton Primary School, Starcross Primary School, Cockwood Primary School, and Teignmouth Primary School, alongside the Trust's secondary schools, namely Newton Abbot College, Dawlish College, and Teignmouth Community School. The project culminated in a performance on 21st March 2024 at Newton Abbot College, with all eight schools represented. The videos in the Youtube playlist show the artwork created by the primary schools as part of the project, accompanied by live recordings of their performances, and the Soundcloud playlist contains the songs created and performed by the students at the Trust's three secondary schools.
Community and Identity
This project for Ivy Schools Trust in Spring Term 2023, led by Patrick Staturley and Elfyn Jones, aimed to bring the Trust’s school community together, promoting a sense of shared identity, and demonstrate the value of creative arts as a core part of a school’s wider curriculum. During the projects, children created work with music at its heart that affirmed a sense of community and shared identity across the Trust, and responded to the unique character of the wider community around the Trust’s schools. The video shows the artwork that the schools created as part of the project, accompanied by recordings made during the workshops of the children singing the songs composed during the project.
Sonorities
Sonorities is a Music Composition project designed to bridge the gap between KS3 and KS4. This project began in five Devon secondary schools in 2019-20, and ran in two Devon secondary schools in 2020-21 as an online project. In 2021-22 the project resumed face-to-face, working in Mid-Devon, and on its fourth iteration visited four Torbay secondary schools, culminating in a shared performance in Spring 2023. We have just finished our fifth iteration for schools in and around Exeter, culminating in a shared performance at West Exe School. The video shows a small selection of work created by the students during the Torbay project.
Ashburton Science Project: Light
Elfyn Jones spent two half days with year 3 on their curricular science project in July 2022, investigating the properties of light and shadows. This video is the result! The soundtrack is an original song with lyrics co-written with the children and music by Elfyn Jones. Many thanks to the teachers and staff at Ashburton Primary School, and to Jacobs for funding the workshops.
The Grove Residency
Elfyn Jones was in residence at The Grove Primary School, Totnes, working with children across Key Stage 2, in Autumn/Spring 2021/22. During Autumn Term 2021, Years 5 and 6 were learning about Space. This is some of their artwork, accompanied by a soundtrack of some of the music they created with Elfyn during the residency, which was shared at The Grove with the whole of KS2 as an immersive performance with quadraphonic sound, simulating the orbits of the planets themselves!
Creativity Through Music
This project, in which Ruth Atkinson, Kip Pratt and Elfyn Jones worked with seven schools from United Schools Federation in Devon and Torbay, used music to celebrate and develop creativity in primary schools. It was funded by University of Plymouth and Devon and Torbay Education Hubs. Creativity through Music was featured in Real Ideas Organisation's webinar Making Music Matters in March 2022, and at South West Peninsula Music Education Conference in May 2022, as an example of good practice in music education.
Torbay Music and Poetry Project
This is a Spring 2022 project in five Torbay primary schools: Barton Hill, St Marychurch, Eden Park, Shiphay and Roselands. This podcast showcases the 13 songs that Kip and Elfyn composed with the children in this project.
Let's Play!
A singing games project for primary schools. Informal singing and playing for the classroom, playground and home. Supported by Devon and Torbay Music Education Hub. This project took place in 19 schools across Devon and Torbay in Autumn 2021 and Spring 2022, led by Kip Pratt and Elfyn Jones.
Ancient Egypt Garage Band project 2021
This one-day composition project with Year 5 at Woodlands Park Primary School led by Elfyn Jones explored the fascinating world of Ancient Egypt, and led to the creation of this film featuring music composed by the children on Garage Band.
Dartmoor Soundscapes 2020
This project for Dartmoor MAT, led by Elfyn Jones and Duncan Chave and funded by Devon Education Fund, aimed to capture and celebrate the uniqueness of Dartmoor, and raise the awareness of this precious resource for young people, including the ways that it is changing and under threat.
Dart/Change 2018
Dart/Change, funded by DMEH in association with Dartington Arts, told the spellbinding story of the River Dart from its sources on Dartmoor to the open sea through live music, sound design and voiceover narrative and poetry, as told by primary school children from St John's Primary School, Totnes. Students from King Edward VI Community College explored the theme of change in their songs and compositions.