residential SUMMER SCHOOL

For twelve years, the Grand Union Orchestra has run a successful Summer School. It played a significant part in the Company’s artistic mission and in progressive music education. However, unable to attract sufficient funding, recent iterations have had to drop the residential feature.

Our summer school is unique in that it

  • Inspires freedom and creativity among like-minded young musicians

  • Encourages participants to bring their own ideas, themes and compositions to share

  • Explores a vast array of global music alongside international professionals

  • Supports improvisation skills and playing by ear

Feedback from our 2022 Summer School participants

“It was a great project and I met some really interesting musicians from London! Learning new pieces and composing our own music allowed me to connect with musician's experiences and the genre's that they commonly play! I felt as though composing pieces in a group helped improve my teamwork skills. Learning about how music differs in regions around the world was very fascinating as I am not familiar with them but am now very interested in it.”

Iris Francis (flute)

“absolutely loved the Summer school, I found the Grand Union team incredibly inspiring, interesting and also warm, and it was clearly a really creative and kind environment.Thank you so much, a fantastic, unusual and happy week!’

Scarlett Quinn (Violin, electric and acoustic guitar)

Feedback from Shanti Jayasinha, our 2022 Summer School Director 

The Grand Union Summer School 2022 was held at the Tramshed in Bethnal Green.

We designed an interesting and varied week, with sessions led by Claude Deppa, Louise Elliott, Zhu Xiaomeng, Yousuf Ali Khan and Byron Wallen.

Each afternoon was set aside for the students to work on their own compositions in small groups, and it was heartening to hear ideas from the masterclasses entering into their work.

The week ended with a performance of some of the pieces we were taught and all of the pieces the students composed, to an enthusiastic audience of family and friends. The students gained in confidence in themselves as well and in their musical skills.

This is a unique programme that really opens the minds of the participants to many possibilities. All in all a great success.