Learning

WAF is thrilled to deliver a Learning & Engagement programme which provides singing opportunities to around 200 children in our surrounding villages.

Our objective is to offer fun, accessible and inspiring musical opportunities to all children in our community, regardless of their prior musical experience or socio-economic background. Our workshops aim to encourage enjoyment and participation in music from an early age, and to promote values of teamwork and collectivity through group singing.

Following on from singing workshops delivered in local primary schools by our dedicated in-house team of education specialists, local children then have the opportunity to perform in our WAF Children’s Choir, taking to the stage alongside our professional artists during the Festival itself in September.

We are particularly proud of the close links forged between our Learning & Engagement programme and our Composer-in-Residence scheme. Each year we invite one of the UK’s most exciting young composers to be resident at WAF and compose several pieces of brand new music for the Festival. As well as writing for our professional performers, the Composer-in-Residence also composes a song specially for the WAF Children’s Choir, which then receives its world premiere in one of the Festival’s principal concerts.

We are delighted to partner with seven wonderful local primary schools to provide these opportunities to children in our community.

We are absolutely committed to providing our Learning & Engagement programme at no cost to the children involved or their schools, and we are hugely grateful to our Festival Supporters for helping us to achieve this.