Officially launched in March 2009, In Harmony Liverpool is a social action music programme which is embedded within the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic. In partnership with key local institutions, In Harmony Liverpool works to improve the life chances of children in the Everton & Anfield districts of Liverpool and has already established a legacy to be proud of over the course of its first decade. With well-developed progression paths led by inspirational role models, it has helped contribute to raised aspirations, an increase in civic pride and stronger local communities.
Having initially started off with just 84 primary school pupils, In Harmony Liverpool has grown considerably in the last ten years. The programme has expanded to cater to over 1,500 children across three primary schools, one nursery school, two children’s centres and diverse community-based activities. Through cooperation with external music organisations, including the Liverpool Philharmonic Youth Company and the local Resonate Music Hub, it also ensures that opportunities are provided for its children as they grow up and move on into secondary schools in the area.
A focus on what matters most
In Harmony Liverpool adheres to criteria which will be familiar to followers of other Sistema programmes worldwide and, in a 2016 review, its key characteristics were seen to revolve around five key elements:
- High-quality, child-centred music education
- A sense of place [in the Liverpool communities of Everton & Anfield]
- Long-term commitment
- Evidence-based education
- Using leadership to enhance and transform lives
As these key characteristics suggest, In Harmony Liverpool prides itself on its community-based role and the difference it makes. Working with children with 20 different mother tongues, with above-average numbers of participants categorised as having special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) and schools in which 40% of children are classified as living in poverty, In Harmony Liverpool is a major part of the puzzle which nonetheless ensures that children in Everton & Anfield achieve remarkable results.
Part of the reason for In Harmony Liverpool's success is its openness to constructive criticism and its desire to work more effectively. Already embracing a wide-range of musical styles (from classical to jazz and blues via traditional and contemporary) and pedagogies (from Dalcroze to Kodály and Suzuki), the In Harmony Liverpool team is nonetheless continually on the lookout for new ways to have even more impact and to improve the programme it provides.
Constant evaluation & improvement
In Harmony Liverpool ensures its improvement through a process of regular evaluation. Dr. Susanne Burns put together its most recent review in January and the programme has benefited from a constant process of external, multi-faceted evaluation and internal self-assessment throughout its existence. Thanks to these evaluations, In Harmony Liverpool has a vast amount of data on its activities and is able to maintain a constant overview of the effectivity of its different approaches.
For instance, surveys show that In Harmony Liverpool has helped local children bridge development gaps, positively impacting upon and promoting language development, social interaction skills, emotional well-being, creativity, confidence, concentration, behaviour and teamwork skills. We also know that, among SEND participants, In Harmony Liverpool’s child-led approach has supported increased interaction, encouraged children to become more responsive and helped develop better anger management strategies.
In Harmony Liverpool has opened so many doors for me. This is due to the outstanding support of the staff over the past seven years. My tutors have pushed me to be the best I can be.
Feedback from a young participant in IH Liverpool
The evaluation and assessment approach has also been put to work bridging the natural educational gaps children face. Although it works with a variety of local institutions to provide progression paths and support children from nursery school through to secondary school, In Harmony Liverpool has previously had its work cut out managing the transitional phase its children face as they move from primary to secondary schools. Therefore, after national evaluations of the six In Harmony programmes suggested that this was an area which required additional measures, In Harmony Liverpool trialled a Pre-Associate Membership Scheme. This action research project provided talent development for In Harmony young musicians who were at pre-Grade 5 level, to support them in progressing up to the Liverpool Philharmonic Youth Orchestra. The three young musicians in the trial received additional lessons and support and performed as Associate Members of the Liverpool Philharmonic Youth Orchestra in March 2019. The learning from this action research project is now being applied to ensuring pathways are available to those children wanting to continue their music-making during the transition from primary to secondary school.
The evaluations also provide confirmation of work well-done and amongst the most satisfying findings are surely those which show how the programme’s standing has grown within the communities it works with. 95% of parents surveyed agree that In Harmony Liverpool’s work has positively impacted upon their relationships with both their child/children and their child/children’s school. Furthermore, case studies suggest that the programme’s reputation is actually positively affecting which schools parents choose to send their children to, with parents stating that they have specifically chosen to enrol their children in In Harmony Liverpool schools, so as to ensure that they can be part of the programme.
The children concentrate really well now and are more enthusiastic. Everything in music has a knock-on effect in other areas – listening skills, lining up. The rhyming and songs have an impact on the children learning to read and write – the visual approach works really well. The children are [also] being more patient and wait for their turn.
Feedback from a teacher in an IH Liverpool school
A celebration of excellence
So, after 10 years and 325 performances to a total audience of over 44,000 people, there was plenty to celebrate in the second weekend of March. And, the celebrations actually started slightly ahead of schedule, with a pleasant surprise and yet more confirmation of the programme’s achievements, as the In Harmony Liverpool team was nationally recognised for its excellent work with the presentation of the Music Teacher Awards for Excellence Prize as this year's Outstanding Classical Music Education Initiative on the 6th March. Celebrations will, however, have been postponed, with the big extended birthday weekend following very close on the heels of the prizegiving ceremony.
Just three days after the prizegiving ceremony, the In Harmony Liverpool 10th birthday weekend kicked off, starting with a Saturday evening fundraising concert by the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, featuring the New Zealand-born conductor, Holly Mathieson, and the Liverpool Philharmonic artist in residence, Pacho Flores. Then, on the Sunday, the children were themselves up on stage in two different, but equally excellent, performances. Your Sistema Europe editor was lucky enough to be able to attend the first of these concerts by the In Harmony North of England orchestra and Liverpool Philharmonic’s young artist in residence, Sheku Kanneh-Mason (famous for, for example, his performance at the royal wedding in 2018).
A child-led production
Alongside the music itself, Sunday afternoon’s wonderful concert provided many talking points: from its star turn to the world premiere of its specially-written pieces and the manner of its presentation. Most significantly, whatever the piece or format, the concert was designed so as to ensure that the In Harmony children took centre stage throughout, not just playing but also introducing their pieces, both in person and in creatively-pre-prepared video clips which were played on a large screen above the orchestra.
Watch IH Liverpool's official 10th anniversary video
The creativity and youth ownership of the proceedings were particularly emphasised in the second half of the concert during the world premiere of Edinburgh-based Stephen Deazley’s lively The Wonder Files. This enjoyable new suite had been specifically commissioned and produced for the occasion and, as we soon found out, written on the basis of the inspiration provided by the children of the In Harmony North of England orchestra (made up of In Harmony Liverpool, In Harmony Newcastle Gateshead and In Harmony Opera North).
To clarify the genesis of The Wonder Files before the playing started, Mr Deazley was called to the stage by two of the young players, who then proceeded to interview him and to discuss how the suite came about. In the course of the interview and the videos which preceded each individual movement, we discovered that Deazley had produced the suite by asking the children a series of questions, subsequently developing the music according to their responses. For example, the menacing-sounding Robot Rules was the result of Joshua from In Harmony Liverpool wondering whether robots would one day come to take over the world, while DNA & The Dance of Life originated from In Harmony Liverpool’s Ruby contemplating what life would be like if we could multiply ourselves and be in two or more places at once. Within the suite, there was also space for a movement written specifically to showcase Kanneh-Mason’s talents (The Mermaid and the Moon) and plenty of performative creativity, with party poppers, light shows, acoustic mimicry of robots and co-ordinated chanting all parts of this well-received show.
Photos from IH Liverpool's birthday performances at the Liverpool Philharmonic & the House of Commons
All photography commissioned photographs by Mark McNulty provided c/o In Harmony Liverpool
Use the arrows to scan the gallery
Later on on the Sunday evening, the Liverpool Philharmonic Youth Orchestra took up the baton, with a concert accompanied by Simon Emery and Pacho Flores and packed full of classical and modern staples, such as Danzón No.2, the 2nd movement of Beethoven’s 7th Symphony and John Williams’ Symphonic Suite from Star Wars. And, just a short sleep later, the extended weekend’s grand finale came in the form of the official birthday concert on the following Monday afternoon.
Live streamed via the Liverpool Philharmonic’s Facebook page, the birthday concert was and remains available for everyone, and, with 4,000 viewers on site and c.25,000 views online it has more than doubled the programme’s official audience from its first decade overnight, ensuring wider recognition for both the team and the children’s musical achievements.
A tailor-made celebration of all things In Harmony
In terms of its setup, the Monday’s birthday party concert continued on where the weekend’s concerts had left off. Initially conducted by Emily Vanlint and Sally Anne Anderson, the start of the performance also helped us gain a glimpse into one of the In Harmony Liverpool team’s many successful pedagogical approaches, with the call and response of the conductors’ sung instructions clearly discernible in the recording.
As with the preceding concerts, this concert also benefitted from the guest appearance of the Liverpool Philharmonic’s current artist in residence, Pacho Flores and a quick look at the programme suffices to get a sense of the vast amount of work which the supporting team puts into teaching the children and preparing them for concerts like these. Looking down the listing, it’s impossible to overlook the fact that practically every single item in the programme has been specifically adapted and arranged by one of the concert’s conductors (i.e. Emily Vanlint, Sally Anne Anderson or Rod Skipp). However, the children played their part in putting the pieces together, too, with, for example, year fives and sixes from the Faith & Beacon CofE schools composing the text for the reworking of Clean Bandit. And, it was the children who once more stole the limelight, both in their playing and in the continuation of the child introductions seen in the preceding concerts.
The full programme of the Monday's birthday concert
And, the children’s introductions were not just impressive displays of self-confidence, they also afforded more insight into both their reception of the pieces and the In Harmony Liverpool team’s approach to teaching them. References to the hand movements of the choir during the performance of O Fortuna showed how visualisation is used to convey an understanding of rhythm in classes, while the jokey allusion to the emotional perception of the music in the introduction to Jackaroos provides us with a sense of how the children’s understanding of tone is both encouraged and developed.
Watch the live stream video from In Harmony Liverpool's 10th birthday concert
Click here if you cannot see/hear the video.
Jackaroos was also part of a first half which brought out the In Harmony Liverpool classics, with it showcasing some of the programme’s most-loved entry tunes. Hello Everyone was in fact the first piece ever performed by In Harmony Liverpool back in 2009, while The Rocks, Jackaroos, Broadway or Bust and The Can-Can have all played important roles in the training of different primary-level musical aspects over the course of the programme’s first decade.
Beyond the choice of tracks, the performative approach to many of the pieces also made for a creative implementation of the concert. Alongside the aforementioned hand choreography by the choir, viewers were also treated to the integration of plenty of body percussive elements in Broadway or Bust and interspersed chanting in both this piece and The Can-Can. And, of course, there were massive party poppers and glitter galore after the last notes of the official final track had been played.
A triple encore and a special performance at the heart of government
Yet, the show wasn’t over yet and once the standing applause had died down, the audience got to enjoy a double encore. The first of these additional pieces emphasised the circumstances, while the second was a clear reference to the programme’s roots, with a rendition of Happy Birthday followed in quick succession by the Beatles’ Hey Jude, bringing the evening and the bumper weekend of celebrations to a close.
Much like the concert, however, the celebrations also enjoyed an encore, with a trip down to Westminster with their local MP and a proud performance at the House of Commons ensuring yet more acknowledgement for In Harmony Liverpool’s achievements and concluding the 10th anniversary celebrations in style on the banks of the Thames on the 18th March.
And, now that the anniversary celebrations are over, In Harmony Liverpool is once more looking ahead, looking towards its annual summer school in July, looking to continue building up relationships in its second year in Anfield and looking at even more ways to improve and to boost the communities in which it is embedded. We wish everyone at In Harmony Liverpool all the very best with their future endeavours and look forward to reporting on and being involved in many more great events with the team in the years to come.
Want to find out more and/or support the programme?
If you’ve been inspired to find out more about In Harmony Liverpool and don’t want to wait for our next article about them, then you can find out more information about the programme at the links below:
https://twitter.com/ihliverpooltwitter.com/ihliverpool
https://www.liverpoolphil.com/about-us/in-harmony-liverpool/livphil.com/ihliverpool/
If you wish to help support In Harmony Liverpool by making a donation, then you can do so via the following link:
Donating to In Harmony LiverpoolDonating to IH Liverpool
And, for those of you that want to delve that little bit deeper into In Harmony Liverpool, we also include a link to the most recent independent report carried out on the impact of their work over the course of the last ten years:
10 Years of Learning - In Harmony Liverpool January 201910 Years of Learning
Please note that this is a link to a 1.8 MB .pdf & will download when clicked upon on most mobile phones
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