Innovative partnership brings ‘Child’s Play’ to life

In a groundbreaking venture on 15 October in Shirebrook, Black Dyke will celebrate the history, as well as the modern-day importance of child’s play via the première of a work entitled Child’s Play, as part of a multi-partnership.

The 15 October première, broadcast live over the Internet, will see Black Dyke, led by Nicholas Childs, joined by Shirebrook Miners Welfare Band, a host of local primary school choirs and narrator, Frank Renton - presenter of BBC Radio 2’s Listen to the Band.

The world première will mark the culmination of ten-month project funded by Arts Council England through Grants for Arts, Bolsover District Council, Shirebrook Town Council and First Art.
Led by Bolsover District Council and Shirebrook Town Council, the innovative project has brought together arts bodies, town and district councils, education providers, film makers, private home developers, composers, broadcasters and brass bands, and provides a musical catalyst to inform ideas behind the development of a state of the art play area within the local community.

The project has already seen composer, Paul Lovatt-Cooper, working with pupils from Shirebrook Academy on the brass band and choral soundtrack for a 14-minute film, involving exploring a family friendly time-line history of many well-known and local nursery rhymes and games, from the Victorian era to the present time. It is hoped that the composition and film will not only inspire other communities, but also become part of brass banding repertoire and local children will benefit from a newly constructed play area.

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