The festival is working with Hornsea School & Language College and South Holderness Technology College on the Holderness Musical Heritage and Industry Skills Project in 2008.
The project will comprise two streams of workshops leading to festival performance supprrting Tasmin Little and participation by over 50 young people.
Musical Heritage Workshops
Students will explore their cultural heritage, identity and links with their Norwegian Neighbours through the medium of music, song and spoken word. The material created will be recorded and a CD produced. The main theme of the workshops with be the maritime history of the Holderness area and its North Sea links with Norway.
The project will blend traditional material from the region with complementary songs from Norway. The students will also learn the art of composition and use the workshops to create new songs using their own experiences and living tradition.
These workshops will be lead by Sam Pirt of the bands 422 and the Hut People and one of the founders of Ethno England and Unni Lovlid, a singer-songwriter from Hornindal in west Norway. Unni belongs in the top category of folk musicians, something which provided her with a fundament for her masters degree at the Norwegian Academy of Music. Unni has received a number of awards for her contributions to folk singing.
The group from both schools will support the internationally renowned classical violinist, Tasmin Little, in St. Mary's Church on Saturday 21st June and a selection of the students will travel to Norway in the summer to perform the festival of the North Sea in Farsun in August.
Industry Skills Development Workshops
These workshops will teach students the skills required to work towards a career in the music industry, covering areas such as:
- Opportunities in the music industry - focus group with a panel of industry practitioners
- Preparing your biography and CV
- Marketing.
- Using new media to increase your audience.
- PA & Sound technician skills
- Stage Management
- Recording and production techniques
- Event promotion
- How to become an agent or promoter
- Developing a business plan and accessing financial support for your work.
They will also shadow festival staff & volunteers during the Beverley festival weekend to gain concrete experience in their chosen fields.
Students will be involved in the final recording of any live material in the festivals and production of 100 CD's. They will adopt the skills learnt to market and promote the sales of the CD in the region and recover, in part, the costs of production.
