Elgar is spur

Elgar himself once conducted the Oxford Bach Choir in a performance of his last great oratorio, The Kingdom, so it seems a fitting tribute to the composer's 150th birthday that the choir is reviving the work at the Sheldonian Theatre next week, to bring this year of Elgar celebration to a close.

It also seems fitting that choir organisers have chosen this work as the inspiration for their first education project, which sees the choir collaborating with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and the Oxfordshire County Music Service to run a series of choral and orchestral workshops for the pupils of St Gregory the Great School in Oxford. Forty children will explore the themes of The Kingdom to produce an original piece of work, which they will then perform at the Sheldonian before the main concert. The project was the brainchild of Martin Peters, the choir's artistic director. When I spoke to him, he was clearly looking forward to the workshops, and seeing the children benefiting from the experience.

"It's very inspiring for them. It's good for building self-esteem and confidence, because they feel really proud of what they've achieved.

"And even though you're flying by the seat of your pants, because you're literally composing something that's as fresh as paint, it's evolving all the time. So the adrenalin's quite high.

"If you're using the children's ideas they're much more engaged, because you're not imposing ideas on them."

Martin knows what he's talking about. He has worked as a teacher and run education outreach projects before, most recently for the Oxford Lieder Festival. But this is a first for the Oxford Bach Choir and this initiative is something Martin is keen to pursue.

"I'd like to encourage the choir to become more involved in the community, so this is one opportunity. The aim is that we build a link with St Gregory's, particularly as it's just become the first school in Oxfordshire to achieve Music Specialist College status.

"They were also involved in the work I did with the Lieder Festival and my contacts with the school are now such that we hope we will have more to do with them."

Eventually, Martin hopes to extend the outreach programme to other schools in the county.

"I'm part of the education group in the Oxfordshire County Music Service, which is a representative group of organisations in and around Oxford who want to deliver music education in the community and at various schools. So my hope is that perhaps we will be able to roll it out. But we can only take on one project at a time, so we'll see how it evolves."

The workshops are being led by Tim Steiner, an education facilitator who works regularly with the RPO.

"It's his role to get the children thinking creatively and to plant the seed that will turn into a new piece of music," said Claire Lewis, the RPO's Community and Education Co-ordinator. "There will also be a team of three RPO instrumentalists, including a violinist, a bassoon player and a percussionist, and I will be there with another lady, Rebecca, and we're both singers.

"The workshops give the children the opportunity to work with our musicians in an aspirational way, and it's also an opportunity for the members of the Oxford Bach Choir to improve professionally."

So how much involvement will the choir have?

"I will go to all of the workshops and I've invited members of the Oxford Bach Choir to come and observe," said Martin. "Also, we may need some enhancement of vocal parts by adults to bring out the lines."

One of the most rewarding aspects of educational workshops for Martin is seeing previously unsuspected talent emerging.

"It's amazing, absolutely amazing. I think it's because it's completely different - something they never normally do.

"A good educator should draw on the interests and skills of all the participants. I've seen this in other projects I've done. You see something in that pupil who might just be hanging around at the back, not being terribly involved, and suddenly you see that they've got terribly good rhythm. And you draw that out. And suddenly they become the group leader, somebody very important in the group, and their whole self-esteem grows. I find that very, very encouraging.

"I think it's good for the whole school community, too, when things of this sort are going on, because my experience is that it filters out into other parts of the school. And the school sees what students are actually capable of, so it raises aspirations."

The Kingdom, presented by the Oxford Bach Choir and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, will be at the Sheldonian on December 1 at 8pm. The new 20-minute choral piece by the workshop students will be at 6.30pm and is open to all ticketholders. Box office: 01865 305305. For further information about the Oxford Bach Choir, visit www.oxfordbachchoir.org.uk. To find out more about the RPO, visit www.rpo.co.uk