In august 2010, I was part of a group of project leaders invited to work with an orchestra of students at the Yong Siew Toh music conservatory in Singapore.
We were alloted 3 afternoons over 3 days with the orchestra and delivered a program designed to encourage the musicians to develop heightened awareness of themselves within the ensemble and of the people around them, to build confidence and to think creatively through composition, arrangement and improvisation.
We began by splitting the orchestra into 3 and assigning leaders to each section. After a series of exercises, we introduced a very small musical idea and encouraged the musicians to develop this idea.
The piece was performed in the conservatory concert hall to a mix of public, staff and students