Shiraz School’s Performance: Friday 11 July 10.30 am

A special screening of the silent film Shiraz, with a newly commissioned score by Sarvar Sabri, and performed by Indian musicians. Pupils will have a brief introduction to some of the instruments used and the use of music in silent film. Tickets for this event are still available and schools interested in bringing students should email . The film is 98 minutes and is suitable for children 10+

Rosie Kay Dance:  Tuesday 1 July  10.30am, 1.30pm, 4.30pm

Rosie Kay will work with groups of students exploring the characters in The Wild Party, the use of text in dance, and help individuals extend their performance techniques. Students attending these workshops will also attend The Wild Party performance on Saturday 5 July in Lichfield Garrick. These workshops are particularly useful for students of Dance or Performing arts GCSE and are open to school/college groups and individuals.

Please note students must be aged 14+ as the performance contains swearing and scenes of a violent and sexual nature.
For more information contact

Daughters of Elvin. Medieval Music and Dance Theatre: Saturday 5 July

Free workshops for children aged  9 – 12  Learn medieval dance and music, with this fascinating group who will be performing around the Medieval Market.
Hour long workshops at 12.00 and 2.45. based inside the Cathedral.  Workshops are free but pre-booking is advised as places are limited. Contact

Shiraz
Supported by Clore Duffield through its Clore Performing Arts Awards & Lichfield Conduit Lands

This project will involve 60 young people aged 12-16 from four South Staffordshire schools.  Their task will be to compose and perform a score for excerpts of the 1928 silent Indian film Shiraz.  Set in the Mughal Empire in the seventeenth century, the film is the epic story of love, mistaken identity and devotion that led to the building of the Taj Mahal. They will do this working with composers Miguel Mera and Sarva Sabri and musicians from Sampad, the performing arts development agency in Birmingham.

They will perform their works to an invited audience at a special screening at Lichfield Garrick Theatre.  Participants will learn about musical strucutures and genres and also about the structure of film and the way that different cultures are represented.

 The project is multi-disciplinary.  Participants will study composition, ways of structuring music and different musical styles with Miguel Mera, for example, the difference between Indian music which is largely based on melody over a drone with western music which follows the idea of harmonic direction and the difference between improvisation and full western notation.

Participants will study different musical instruments will professional Indian and Western musicians including Master tabla player Sanju Sahai and musicians from Sampad.  This will involve learning the sitar, tabla and bansuri, instruments the students may not have had access to before. 

In addition students will learn about film, the shaping of narrative and the ways in which culture is represented. The combination of music and moving images offers endless potential for complex interactions that can stimulate young people’s imaginations in a way that does not happen in any other specific aspect of their curriculum.

The aim of the project is to use music, film, composition and performance to facilitate an understanding of South Asian culture.  The concept of ‘fusion’ will highlight the influence of Indian music and culture on the UK.

Choices
Supported by HSBC

A themed performance poetry project for 120 12-16 year olds from 4 schools in the West Midlands.  Led by professional poets Polarbear and John Berkavitch and in conjunction with England’s leading organisation for performance poetry, Apples & Snakes.

The theme of ‘choices’ will be used a stimulus for participants own creative thinking and writing. 

Participants will be encouraged to think about their own choices and to create their own piece of performance poetry. Working as part of a group and on their own, they will use creative writing as a tool for their own expression.

The project will culminate with a celebration of the students achievements - a live performance

their own poetry in the Garrick Theatre Studio for teachers, friends and family

This project is National Curriculum based, providing a supplement to schools literacy and drama objectives. 

Professional Poets, with their exciting and dynamic approach, will engage with young people in a more interactive way than is possible in the conventional classroom situation.  Their vibrant and entertaining style of teaching brings creative writing alive.

The project will also use poetry and creative writing as a vehicle to study the Choices that the participants have or are about to make, covering personal and social issues such as identity, conflict, bullying, racism, social exclusion and citizenship. 

Aim of the project is to use use poetry to develop literacy and communication skills, motivation, and self-esteem.

Lichfield Festival Chorus
Supported by The D'Oyly Carte Charitable Trust and Swinfen Broun Charitable Trust

For the 2008 Lichfield Festival, we will form a 120 strong Community Choir, which over an initial six month period, will study under the direction of leading choral conductor and music educator Jeffrey Skidmore to perform ‘The Traveller’ a new work by composer Alex Roth and writer Vikram Seth.

The Traveller is written for Lichfield Festival Community Chorus, Britten Sinfonia, violinist Phillipe Honore and Tenor Mark Padmore. This work will be the third from a four year commissioning project in collaboration with Salisbury and Chelsea Festivals. Alec Roth and Vikram Seth’s previous works Songs in Time of War and Confluences II performed at the 2006 and 2007 Festivals received much praise from national press and were recorded by BBC Radio 3.

This is a unique opportunity for 30 children, 30 teenagers and 60 adults from Lichfield and the surrounding areas to work with leading figures from the arts world and take part in a performance project of national standing.  This project is an expansion of the Lichfield Festival’s existing education and outreach programme designed to increase the opportunities for children and young people to get involved in Festival activities. 

The Traveller will be performed in Lichfield Cathedral on Tuesday 8 July 2008.  We anticipate that the Lichfield Festival Community Chorus will perform at the 2009 and 2010 Festivals.

Education Partner

We are looking for a regional business to become the Lichfield Festival's Education Partner and help us to expand the reach of our education programme to even more children and young people in Staffordshire and the West Midlands. For further information please contact Development Manager Vicki Stanley on  01543 306 272 or