MORE than 100 young people from Scotland’s community music and social change programme have taken part in a unique concert at Dundee’s Caird Hall.
Young musicians who make up Big Noise United Orchestra, all aged between 12 and 18, performed at the special concert recently.
The orchestra brings together young people from four of Sistema Scotland’s Big Noise programmes. It is fully inclusive, non-auditioned, and free to take part in for all.
The Caird Hall concert was attended by the performers’ friends, family, and Big Noise community members. It was also open to the general public for the first time.
The orchestra performed a wide-ranging and varied programme of music, including Jacques Offenbach’s ‘Can-Can’, the pipe band classic ‘Highland Cathedral’, and the theme song from ‘Ghostbusters’.
The orchestra also played two special pieces of music written by young people from Big Noise, Szymon Dziegielewski and Dede Tarvet, who won this year’s composition competition with their pieces ‘The Run of The River’ and ‘Waltz’.
Among the musicians were 10 young people who attended Big Noise programmes in Stirling and Glasgow throughout their childhood, and have now graduated.
The concert gave the young participants an opportunity to demonstrate their musical skills to friends and family, as well as other attendees from across the country.
It was the culmination of weeks of rehearsals, including a four-day residential at the Scottish Adventure School in Crieff, where the programme was shaped by Big Noise’s youth committee.
Through an annual programme of rehearsals, trips, and events, members of the United Orchestra can showcase their talent at a national level, while building confidence, ambition, and maturity.
Szymon Dziegielewski said:
“When my piece was selected, I was so excited about how it would sound in the concert with the full orchestra.
“The collaboration process was smooth, and it was a fun experience to perform my piece in the concert. It was nice to hear feedback from the audience saying it was good.”
David Munn, director of music and curriculum at Sistema Scotland, said:
“The concert was a fantastic way for Big Noise communities across the country to come together for a celebration of all the hard work that our young people have put in.
“We’re so proud of everyone who took part, and it was a joy to see some of our younger participants performing side-by-side with some of the young people who have been all the way through and graduated from Big Noise. It was a full-circle moment for everyone involved.
“Making the young people’s voices and choices central to shaping the concert is at the heart of what Big Noise is about, and it was brilliant to see it all play out on one of the country’s biggest stages, just as they envisioned it.
“We would like to thank our communities, funders and supporters who make this wonderful work to transform lives possible.”
Big Noise is a high-quality music education and social change programme, which launched in Raploch, Stirling, in 2008.
It sees children and young people learn music after school, creating a community symphony orchestra which supports them to gain vital life skills such as confidence, resilience, creativity, and aspiration.
There are now six centres supporting more than 3,500 children and young people across Scotland, including Govanhill in Glasgow, Torry in Aberdeen, Douglas in Dundee and Wester Hailes in Edinburgh, as well as Raploch and Fallin in Stirling.
Big Noise is designed to strengthen the communities where it is based, developing relationships with participants and their families based on mutual respect, trust and a commitment to working together and tackling inequalities for the long term.
Through music and nurturing relationships, from infancy to adulthood, Big Noise supports participants’ wellbeing and helps them reach their full potential.
A long-term evaluation of the model by the Glasgow Centre for Population Health (GCPH) was published in 2022. It found that 98 per cent of Big Noise participants in Raploch went on to a positive post-school destination.
