As part of the Cambridge History Festival, Historyworks partnered with CaMEO (Cambridge Music Education Outreach at the Faculty of Music) to present the Creating My Cambridge: Singing History Concert, featuring local primary school children's creative work.

 As part of the Cambridge History Festival, Historyworks partnered with CaMEO , to present the Creating My Cambridge: Singing History Concert, a culmination of creative writing and composition project in local primary schools. The Creating My Cambridge project was also generously supported by  John Lewis, enabling video resources and workshops to be provided to schools in the run up to the concert.

The Singing History concert created a real buzz in West Road Concert Hall, as both primary school children and community choirs came together to celebrate local history through song, poetry and rap. The auditorium was heaving with audience members both young and old who had come to enjoy this celebratory afternoon, and to share in the unique opportunity for children to present their history-inspired creative works.

Mario Satchwell from Historyworks  and Tizzy Faller from CaMEO kicked off the concert leading the audience in an active warm up- setting the tone for the relaxed and participatory feel of the concert. This was followed by community choir leader- Rowena Whitehead teaching the audience Vela Sigabone- a traditional African welcome song, supported by her choir Resound!

It was then a chance for local primary school children from Milton CE, St. Philip’s, The Spinney, and Milton Road primary schools to perform their pieces. These were developed in school during a series of workshops with a number of artists and historians including Dave Cohen from CBBC Horrible Histories, Mario Satchwell and Helen Weinstein from Historyworks, and Tizzy Faller from CaMEO.

There were a variety of performances as part of the concert, spanning a real breadth of local history and crossing a number of different styles. This included a round based on Oliver Cromwell by Dave Cohen, songs about the Fitzwilliam Museum lion statues composed by Kirsty Martin, inspired by Michael Rosen’s Listening Lions poem, songs about Thomas Hobson by Dave Cohen and Inja’s Freedom rap, about Equiano and the abolishment of the slave trade. 

Freedom was performed live by Inja alongside children from St Philip’s Primary School, The Spinney School and Sing! Community Choir, which provided a great opportunity for collaboration between artists, school children and the local community.

The real highlight however, was hearing the children’s own performances, which included songs and raps, accompanied by body percussion and instruments. Milton Primary School’s Milton Mash Up composition group shared a number of great pieces, including a piece about Milton Village, supported by their school choir. St. Philip’s School children led a fantastic collaborative piece about the Fitzwilliam Museum lions, Milton Road shared compositions based on the story of Thomas Hobson, with some imaginative body percussion accompaniment and The Spinney shared a number of wonderful poems about Hobson and Cromwell.

The concert Finale was led by Resound! singing Something Inside So Strong, with the audience being encouraged to join in, as they had done throughout the concert. At the very end of the concert all the children were invited to the stage to sing Vela Sigaboneone last time, making for an uplifting end to a fantastic concert. 

As part of the project Historyworks and CaMEO collaborated to visit a number of schools to deliver composition and body percussion workshops, as well as developing lesson plans and resources for teachers. To access these resources visit:www.creatingmycambridge.com/guides-and-films/how-to-do-body-percussion/