Music and Maths Projects

The New London Orchestra developed its first curriculum project in Hammersmith & Fulham in 2000 for National Maths Year, and it has since run the Maths and Music project in many schools across London. The New London Orchestra recently joined the Royal Institution for a special master class. Musicians and RI mathematicians worked together to present a session for year 6 school pupils. Previously we ran a series of workshops for the Probably Mozart at the Cambridge Festival in 8 primary schools in Cambridgeshire and Suffolk exploring the links between music and maths, and discussing how Mozart used maths in his compositions. Pupils from the schools involved then composed their own version of Mozart's Dice Game, which was performed at the New London Orchestra's concert at Tattersall's in November to a very enthusiastic crowd. We also delivered a series of workshops entitled Mathstastic! at a three-day summer school in Hammersmith & Fulham for gifted and talented pupils. Children aged 8–12 took part in workshops in which they played maths and music games, estimated distance using music and learned about ways of using maths to compose pieces.