This year, Year 9 GCSE Music pupils have been taking part in a composition project with the 'Music in the Round' organisation. They describe the project as 'an adventure in composition for young people across the UK' and have been working with pupils in schools in many UK cities as well as here in Portsmouth. Schools have been partnered up with composers, and we have been delighted to welcome Marcus Rock (https://www.marcusrockcomposer.com/) to several lessons this year, where, with his help, pupils have worked in small groups to create their original compositions.

The project theme is string quartets. Initially, pupils listened to and analysed four existing works by Franz Schubert, Dimitri Shostakovich, Jesse Montgomery and Anna Meredith before taking inspiration from these to compose their own musical ideas. Marcus has helped to support the pupils to translate their ideas into music for a string quartet, realising and transcribing the pieces so that they can be played in a celebration concert event next term. We are really looking forward to hearing the pupils' works performed live, played by the Ligeti String Quartet at the Portsmouth Guildhall.