New London Orchestra - Adventures in Music

Music & Maths

Using music as a tool in education as part of the core curriculum

Current Projects

The New London Orchestra joined the Royal Institution for a special master class on 20th June 2009. Musicians and RI mathematicians worked together to present a session for year 6 school pupils.

History

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.

More recently, we have developed variations on the project, including:

The New London Orchestra ran a series of workshops 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.

Probably Mozart at the Cambridge Festival

View full sized Jonny Ball, using music as a tool in education as part of the core curriculum, music and maths

We delivered a series of workshops 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.

Mathstastic!

"The workshop began with introductions from Karl and David who played their instruments - tuba and clarinet, to the class, in a rendition of the Dr Who theme tune!"

They also took part in purely maths workshops and music technology workshops, and listened to a talk given by Johnny Ball. The summer school ended in an enjoyable performance to parents and guests.

"We're looking forward to hearing the results of the evaluation forms the children completed and hope to continue working with the Royal Institution on more of these primary workshops in the future."

Read more about these sessions and more in the blog.