A week to remember – Big Noise birthdays 2020

26/08/2020

Title image c/o of Sistema Scotland

Ensuring support throughout

Like Sistema programmes across Europe, Sistema Scotland took its teaching online once classes stopped. Concerned about pupil safety, teaching was suspended immediately in all Big Noise centres on 18th March 2020, a few days before Scottish schools themsleves closed their doors. Yet, Big Noise classes were soon back up and running, with virtual tuition available regularly as early as the second week of April. And, by late June, Big Noise teachers had already held more than 3,000 online lessons and produced over 500 teaching videos!

As educators but also as mentors and role models, the Big Noise team found it crucial to ensure that not just tuition remained available but that their relationships with pupils were also maintained, and they have done their utmost to continue supporting the wellbeing of children and young people in Aberdeen, Dundee, Glasgow and Stirling through the pandemic.

This mindset was also behind the team's determination to put on the best birthday party they could within the constraints of the current circumstances:

Birthday celebrations for our four Big Noise programmes are always an important part of the Big Noise calendar. Community concerts each summer give children and young people the opportunity to share their progress with their families and friends, promoting confidence and pride in their achievements. We may not be able to get together in person this year, but the young people have so much to be proud of, so, this week [20.07.20], we're bringing our celebrations online!

Sistema Scotland newsletter

And, what a birthday party it was. Sistema Scotland arranged celebrations for all four Big Noise centres throughout the penultimate week of July and the action-packed programme included entertainment, live digital concerts, fun activities, interactive sessions and plenty of cake!

A schedule of the birthday week events

A schedule of the main birthday week eventsThe main birthday week events

Many reasons to celebrate

Yet, what were the birthdays being celebrated? As one of Europe's most-established programmes, Sistema Scotland centres celebrated their 12th (Big Noise Raploch), 7th (Big Noise Govanhill), 5th (Big Noise Torry) and 3rd (Big Noise Douglas) birthdays this summer. Some of the founding members of staff were even able to look back at 13 years of Sistema Scotland and to recall the early days of door knocking on the streets of Stirling to drum up enthusiasm for the classes to come!

Going in order of age, the festivities started off with a live stream hosted by Veronica of Big Noise Raploch on Monday 20th July.

Watch the live stream video from Raploch!
Click here if you cannot see/hear the video.

Back to the beginnings

In a fitting celebration of the programme's origins, this live stream took us on a tour of the start of both Sistema Scotland and Big Noise Raploch back in 2007/8, recalling the excitement and pleasant surprise of those involved when so many children turned up for the very first day of activities.

We also hear and see how quickly Big Noise Raploch was subsequently able to develop, with the introduction of woodwind, brass and percussion instruments in June 2010 followed by a first orchestral performance in October 2010 and then, just four years after the programme's formation, a performance at the opening ceremony of the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow in July 2014!

After the first live stream, the festivities continued with the first of two private Zoom performance & Q+A sessions with Scottish Chamber Orchestra musicians, planned as a special, inspirational birthday treat for Big Noise participants.

And, then, on Tuesday, it was Big Noise Govanhill's turn to take up the figurative torch in a live stream presented by Marina and Ed.

Watch the live stream video from Govanhill!
Click here if you cannot see/hear the video.

This interactive live stream combined information on Sistema Scotland's place and heritage within the global Sistema movement and included picture quizzes, fantastic spotlight performances from Govanhill players, balloon sculpting and the thoughts of students and teachers on both their favourite cakes and the moments of Big Noise Govanhill's lockdown that they have enjoyed most.

A second Scottish Chamber Orchestra concert and 23 hours later and it was Aberdeen's turn to host the next Big Noise birthday party live stream. With Coralie and Rhoda at the helm, the Big Noise Torry team went straight into a Which Birthday Concert? quiz with their online audiences, asking them to guess when the Big Noise Torry concert they'd shown had taken place.

Watch the live stream video from Torry!
Click here if you cannot see/hear the video.

Rhoda then had a surprise for us as she broke into a rendition of a self-made bithday song with a Big Noise Torry focus and a John Denver feel.

This action-packed live stream then span in quick succession from cake baking to spotlight performances and back to another picture quiz before Coralie and Rhoda were joined live on the show by Gabby and Matthew and their mothers.

In Gabby and Matthew's introductions, we found out what instruments they play as well as what their favourite animals are and which real and mythical creatures members of the Big Noise Torry team had been associated with at a recent staff meeting. While the audience was asked to guess which creature matched which teacher, the hosts got into a discussion about the colour of the Big Noise Torry birthday cake's icing and took a look at their party packs.

Party packs & birthday wishes

The party packs were revealed to be brimming with exciting activities and contained music, colour-in posters, a schedule of birthday-related events and a surprise package with an opening time on it and which we would return to later.

While we waited to find out what the suprise package was, Gabby and Natalia introduced us to the emoji game, producing Happy Birthday Big Noise through the use of handcut emoji symbols. We then just had time to for a weather-related pun from Matthew and Bianca before the suspense was ended and we got to see what was in the surprise package.

And, the surprise packages' colourful party streamers were quickly put to good use as birthday wishes and songs were played and the stream culminated in the arrival of the eagerly-awaited cake, with Coralie needing plenty of wind emoji assistance from the Facebook audience to help her blow out the candles and wish everyone a happy Big Noise Torry birthday.

Amongst the Big Noise Together fun activities that followed on the Wednesday and Thursday afternoons, there was also time for two more live sessions: one from Sistema Scotland's youngest member in Dundee and one from the association's longest-serving member of staff and CEO, Nicola Killean.

Hosted by Ana and Alan, Big Noise Douglas's live stream was bursting with, often penguin-related, creativity.

Watch the live stream video from Douglas!
Click here if you cannot see/hear the video.

Jamie started things off by showing us how to make a colourful home-made xylophone before Jenny took over with a guide to how to make your own shadow puppet theatre and, subsequently, a show starring the musical South Georgian penguin, Douglas.

There were also plenty of birthday video messages from the young Big Noise Douglas musicians, the announcement of a new orchestra, a birthday quiz and some excellent spotlight performances.

A plethora of party hats

A highlight of the live stream was the presentation of a stunning array of highly imaginative birthday hats created by Big Noise Douglas children using their party packs. From Joe's musically-themed hat to Victoria's big heart for Big Noise, Daniel's rainbow design and Xander's birthday banner, there were some great entries to the contest.

The Big Noise Douglas live stream video ends fittingly with a collaborative version of Abba's Thank You for the Music by staff members of the Big Noise Douglas team.

Which brings us to the last day of the big birthday week, which culminated in the release of the eagerly-awaited bake off video and a discussion with Sistema Scotland's CEO, Nicola Killean.

Watch the Big Noise Bake Off video!
Click here if you cannot see/hear the video.

Published early on the Friday morning, the Big Noise Bake Off saw Melanie and Lowri face off with their velvet vanilla and chocolate cup cakes. Ably moderated by Ana and judged by the remaining members of the Big Noise Douglas team, this humourous take on a popular TV programme showed us how to make some tasty cup cakes fit for any birthday party. Ana's sassy narration and the team's satirical verdicts on the cakes kept viewers entertained while Melanie and Lowri's top tips doubtless led to a delicious weekend in many a Dundee household.

After the cakes, viewers sat down to watch the week's finale with Sistema Scotland CEO, Nicola Killean. Resplendent in their party hats, Nicola and Coralie started off with a look at the unusual circumstances of this year's birthday party and the pros and cons of the digital format, recalling that there had still been cake, there had still been musical partnerships and singing and that it had been fantastic to have been able to bring together all the Big Noise centres online, even if people hadn't been able to meet in person like they usually would have. Stressing the importance of community and Big Noise concerts and parties in bring people together, Nicola also took the opportunity to ask members of the audience to write in and say who they were watching the event with.

Watch the Q+A with Nicola Killean!
Click here if you cannot see/hear the video.

In the first of many pieces played, we then got to watch a rendition of the Happy Birthday song by Big Noise Govanhill. And, after the song, we got to find out a bit more about Nicola and what brought her to be part of the founding team of Sistema Scotland.

The many advantages of music learning

Listening to Nicola, we discovered that, after learning how to play the piano and the violin, she became a music teacher, at which point, she developed a fascination for the positive impact which music can have on so many other areas of our lives. Continuing on, we learnt how it was this same interest in how music can make us feel, how it can improve our confidence, our concentration and our intersocial skills that led Nicola to Sistema Scotland.

Nicola and Coralie also discussed the changes that the coronavirus had brought with it, leading Nicola to stress how proud she was of both the children and the workers for their commitment and engagement.

Silver linings

For Nicola, some of the best bits of the lockdown have been being able to talk to parents and members of the community every day, having had the new possibility of being able to jump into lessons across Scotland at a moment's notice and all the families and community members involved suddenly being able to see how much fun Big Noise sessions are.

To illustrate the point, we got to see a behind-the-scenes clip of Big Noise Raploch's teaching team in action with a spoof heavy metal clip while Nicola emphasised how Big Noise is about working very hard, but also about having lots of fun while doing so.

When asked about the negative sides of the lockdown, Nicola lamented that they had not been able to play together like they usually would, but stressed that there had nonetheless been much achieved in recent months:

...the main thing for us is [that] we just love practising together. As young musicians, it's really great to practise at home and it really brings you on, and it's great to see that dedication commitment, but it's really fun to make music together

Sistema Scotland CEO, Nicola Killean

Playing together remained a key discussion point as we moved on to Sistema Scotland's plans for the coming school year and the potential for a partial return to normality. When asked about the likely format of Big Noise activities as of September, Nicola said that lots of different options were currently under consideration and that some form of hybrid online-offline tuition approach was looking likely depending on feedback from schools once they had started back. Nicola was keen to reassure viewers that, whatever happened, Big Noise groups would definitely continue to make music and to have fun together.

Amongst the remaining clips and birthday messages (including a special message from Sistema Scotland's big sister, Nicola Benedetti), there was also enough time left for the recounting of two special Big Noise memories and for a fitting biscuit metaphor.

The perfect mix

Asked by a young musician what sort of biscuit she would ideally be and why, Nicola stated that she would be an Empire Biscuit, as they remind her of Big Noise with their combination of lots of different things, which, together, produce an amazing whole.

And, it was this amazing whole and its development which we will end on, courtesy of an anecdote from Nicola. Asked about her favourite moment at Sistema Scotland, Nicola picked two and, in her second, we were treated to a perfect encapsulation of the wonderful work and the great progress that the Big Noise teams have managed to produce.

Talking about Joelle's specially-written piece for Big Noise, Mission Mars, Nicola recalls how, at the first ever Big Noise birthday concert, professional musicians were called in to take on the more complex parts. Yet, a decade later, at Big Noise Raploch's tenth birthday concert, it was those same young children from the first concert who were taking on the more advanced parts and who were themselves helping the next generation of younger musicians to progress.

We wish everyone at Sistema Scotland belated happy birthdays and a fulfilling and successful winter term in whatever form it ultimately takes. We also look forward to seeing the new generation of young Scottish musicians coming through and to seeing more of the creativity that July's birthday birthday party week once more put in the spotlight.

Photos of party packs, party hats & cakes in Douglas, Govanhill, Raploch & Torry

All photos c/o of the respective Big Noise centres

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Want to find out more about Sistema Scotland and the Big Noise centres?

Below you can find links to the online platforms for Sistema Scotland and all of the Big Noise centres. Click on the relevant icons to visit the websites of your choice:

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