Education & Outreach

 

For the past 15 years, Turning Point Ensemble, with the generous support of our funders, has been able to take our Creating Composers music education program into schools across Metro Vancouver at no cost to participating individuals. During this time, the TPE Ensemble have been resident educational artists with “Orchestra North Summer Program” (Smithers), Prince George Symphony Orchestra (Prince George, BC), Pacific Northwest Music Festival (Terrace, BC), and in collaboration with Westbank First Nation (Westbank, BC), Langley Community Music School (Langley, BC) as well as with schools throughout Greater Vancouver.

UMBRELLA EDUCATIONAL PROGRAM: CREATING COMPOSERS, NURTURING A LIFE-TIME OF ARTISTIC EXPRESSION THROUGH MUSICAL COMPOSITION

The TPE Ensemble and a professional composer team up to create new works with student composers and young creative artists ages 13-18 to give them the skills to “be a composer”.

 

The workshops will not only focus on creative composition in general, but will a focus on orchestration by augmenting the Turning Point ensemble with members of the local musician community and the guidance of professional composers who are members of the Canadian Music Centre.

WHAT’S THE SCORE?

TPE members create new works along the lines developed in the Creating Composers program, but with young composers focusing on orchestration…often in this program starting with the orchestration of an existing composition, “creating a score”, and moving to orchestration of an original piece.

MUSIC CON-TEXT (with performances entitled Poetry ’N Pieces)

Enhancing the development of music composition skills with associated skills in creative writing, the cohort of students create works inspired by or inclusive of original poetry or other text sources with the guidance not only of professional composers, but also professional poets. For the past two years, the Turning Point Ensemble musicians, and students worked with composer Owen Underhill and Surrey Poet Laureate Renée Sarojini Saklikar.

MASTER CLASSES, READING SESSIONS, AND OPEN REHEARSALS

Turning Point facilitates visits by guest composers to local University music classes, and opens rehearsals to students to watch the process of creation and re-creation of music of our time.

Music is a universal language and students can develop confidence through self-expression, regardless of economic, language, or cultural barriers. Turning Point Ensemble provides the catalyst to spark the interest in music or the arts in general.