APRIL: chamber music coaching
in the welsh borders and beyond
Player-led music-making is at the core of ASMF’s identity, and the principles of it feeds its entire output – from the rehearsal room, to the stage, and in our social purpose projects. In September 2025, sub-principal flautist Sarah Newbold began delivering her Marriner Project, an initiative led by Sarah and supported by ASMF, in which created a series of performances in Llangenny, Wales, and delivered work in schools connected with another of ASMF’s priorities: supporting future generations of musicians to develop chamber playing skills. Here, she reflects on a series of workshops in schools and music hubs in Wales and Cheltenham.
“Last September and November my Marriner Project enabled a flute and string quartet and flute/viola/harp trio to perform in my home village of Llangenny in the Bannau Brycheiniog (Brecon Beacons) National Park, there was a concert of an hour followed by tea and cakes. Children from the village came to watch us rehearse and the next morning we did a performance and workshops in Crickhowell High School.
In April this year we were able to expand the schools work and visit three different schools with flute and string trio. At South Powys Youth Music in Brecon we coached young players with an audience of parents and teachers, a youth group of strings, and an older group of clarinet and strings. It is always fun to coach with a colleague: I learned a lot about string things! We then performed a concert to an audience of about 100, followed by interesting Q&A session.
The next morning we returned to Crickhowell High School where we performed to all of Year 7 and afterwards had a Q&A session where questions ranged from what our favourite country to tour was, to what we thought about the benefits of music and mental health.
In a previous visit we had helped look at the A level students’ composition with them and had discussed orchestration and colour blending. This school is amazing: they have 10 students studying A level music and their music teacher is an inspiration! This time we performed the compositions, it was an incredibly emotional session with the students being thrilled and astonished by hearing their compositions played live on real instruments instead of a computer. It was humbling and very moving to hear what they had produced, to realise that alongside their inspiring teacher, our visits had had a powerful impact on these students.
The students had composed a mixture of string quartets, a piece for flute/harp and string quartet and a song for voice and quartet. One student had written a beautiful piece for flute and viola. He said he had been inspired by hearing the sounds we had shown them in the autumn. It was totally mind blowing to really understand the impact these kinds of workshops can have.
Next, we made our way to Balcarras School in Cheltenham for another two hour performance and workshop session, our concert followed by coaching a flute/clarinet group, an unusual group of clarinet, alto sax, tenor sax and euphonium (playing a very good arrangement by the tenor sax player) and two string groups. At the end of the session all the groups performed to each other and an audience of parents (it was parents evening).
It feels so relevant and important to take live performances to schools. So much music is taught by using computers and live performance is real, energised, personal, interactive and communicative. The sounds and physicality of getting close to a musical instrument is magical and inspiring.” – Sarah Newbold
If you know a school that could benefit from this opportunity, you can find out more here or get in touch with us at socialpurpose@asmf.org