Requiem - An Act of Remembrance
First World War Centenary Project
By Colin Stott
The Requiem project was a multi- agency First World War Centenary project led by Creative Collisions and Orchestras Live. It was made possible by funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund - Young Roots Programme and the Norfolk Music Hub.
The centenary of the First World War provided an opportunity to raise awareness of the role played by local people in the conflict. With no surviving witnesses now it is more important than ever to find new ways to connect young people with the experiences of those who lived through this hugely significant chapter in our national story. We felt that there was a need to approach the topic in a really engaging way to enable the young people to develop a deeper understanding of how the war effected their town & make more meaningful connections with the experiences of local people who lived through it. We believed that it was also important to stage a significant event in Great Yarmouth to mark the final year of the First World War Centenary, commemorate those who lost their lives and engage the wider community in this act of remembrance. This event took place at the Hippodrome Circus on 27 June 2018 with a requiem concert that saw young musicians from participating schools and the Norfolk Youth Orchestra playing with the BBC Concert Orchestra and performing an entirely new orchestral work created for the project by renowned composer Sarah Freestone. The musicians were joined by children from local primary schools singing in a massed choir.
This event was the culmination of a series of linked projects in which different groups of young people were involved in:
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A steering group to help make key decisions
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Researching in local archives
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Creating touring and online exhibitions.
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Working with a composer & professional musicians to help create music for the concert.
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Writer led workshops to create spoken word pieces for the concert
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Working with an artist to devise a sequence of images to accompany the music
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Making a film about the project.
To support the project we assembled a coalition of partners as follows:
We worked with the following schools and colleges:
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Ormiston Venture Academy
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Cliff Park Ormiston Academy
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Benjamin Britten Music Academy
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Great Yarmouth Charter Academy
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Flegg High Ormiston Academy
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East Norfolk Sixth Form College
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East Coast College – Great Yarmouth
- Trafalgar College
The following primary schools made up the concert choir:
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Edward Worlledge Ormiston Academy
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Ormiston Herman Academy
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Woodlands Primary Academy
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St Georges Primary & Nursery School
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St Mary & St Peter Catholic Primary School
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Great Yarmouth Primary Academy
- Northgate Primary School
Follow this link to see a short film about the project - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=osEFIpp8cJ0&feature=youtu.be
Click on the links at the top of this page to find out about the WWI stories that the young people discovered during their research.