This summer, the Orchestra of St John’s collaborated with performing arts group Turtle Key Arts to create the OSJ Key Rhythms project, designed to give autistic children the opportunity to explore music, art and dance during a week of workshops.  The first project took place in August and culminated in a performance at the Wigmore Hall. Alexandra Loewe, the Orchestra’s Projects Manager wrote a blog during the week.

Monday

9am on Monday morning and the artistic team met at the church hall where the Key Rhythms project would begin. OSJ’s Artistic Director John Lubbock came laden with keyboard, a box of percussion instruments and some rubber tubes, Emma for Turtle Key Arts (TKA) wheeled in a huge suitcase full of paper, coloured scraps of material and oven gloves with sand paper stuck onto the palms. Sabs (from TKA) pulled out a piece of long tubing unit and I topped the pile with a metal, swirly umbrella stand. These would form the ‘found objects’ which the children could use with their imagination throughout the week.

Parents and carers arrived at 9.30am, bringing their eager and curious autistic children, who immediately homed in on the keyboards and looked more hesitatingly at the strange assortment of found objects on a separate table. The days all began with a physical warm up which doubled as a name game to find out who we all were.

The project began with the children listening to the rhythms and tunes from improvised pieces explored by John and Catherine Edwards, one of OSJ’s regular players. These shapes were drawn onto squares of paper by the children who each captured the edgy or wavy or spiky or lyrical section of the melody. We ended up with a length of graphic score - the visual representation of the sounds heard. And next came the exciting step: getting up and dancing across the room following those same shapes - bringing them to life with jerky hand waves, jumps, swizzles and wriggles. What imagination! 

Tuesday

With the graphic score as our starting point we picked up the found objects and began to play the drawn shapes and patterns. It grew into an improvisation exploring sound worlds: sandpaper ‘shores’, rattling rack horizons, whooshing winds, all accompanied by sustained harmonic chords on the keyboards which Catherine and John subtly modulated to suit the changing moods. I started improvising a song about stars in the night which Oliver picked up on and dialogued with his clarinet and Robin joined in adding new words. Delano introduced a funky beat on his upside down spiral umbrella stand and the whole sound built up in volume and texture with everyone adding to the beat on their found instrument. Johannes explored the quieter instruments, Misu revelled in bringing us off with a crash on the saucepan lid, Charlotte had a woof and a howl to add at darker moments and Eric found at least five ways to play the egg shaker!

Wednesday

Today was spent embellishing! Each child took their individual section of the graphic score and turned it into a colourful collage, using shiny bits of paper, strips of brightly patterned material, gluing and sticking. When we were finished, we took up our found instruments, added our favourite percussion instruments and composed a musical rendering of the scores. Some of the pictures lent themselves to movement, so we huddled together and bubbled up and over like the volcano in Eric’s picture and we swirled and swayed like the garish ‘crazy’ circles in Robin’s picture. Charlotte’s image of Scooby in his house inspired a song about a dog in the night which changed the pace dramatically as we stood up, in choral formation, to sing the song; Delano and Johannes’ contrasting pieces of storms and soothing river paired well with Oliver’s mysterious journey through howls and growls in the purple night and Misu’s firey red explosion.

Thursday

We spent Thursday linking our improvised sections ready for the performance on Friday. Vocal warm ups earlier in the week had given the children more confidence to project better and breathe more smoothly. A game of tag with one ‘found’ instrument each became a great way to introduce each child onto the performing area: dancing to their own ‘theme/gesture’ as inspired by the object they had chosen to hold. With only keyboard music accompanying them, each child found a way to move with their new found prop towards the next ‘statue’ to bring them to life, and so the line continued.

Friday

Nerves and excitement filled the magical space of the Wigmore Hall auditorium on our final day. After a morning spent running through the show, it was time to show parents, friends and carers what we had been up to all week. 

The show began with a silent procession down the two aisles with animated physical interpretations of two of the original scores until we reached the stage where the tag began and each child strode onto the platform in an imaginative choreography of statue-to-life sequence. The colourful collage score was hung at the back of the stage so the audience and conductor could follow its progress. The final explosion brought this extraordinary merging of dance, music and song together, each child having given thoughtful expression to their interpretation, dedicated time to team working, daring to offer solo spots as well as quietly listening to their fellow performers.

Parents and friends were treated to a delightful performance of colour and rhythmic imagination, concentrated faces working hard to make the experience as enchanting and dynamic as possible, with spectacular results.