Anna Williams-Haines, Head of Programmes at Orchestras for All, joins tutors and young people for the first Modulo session of the year

Orchestras for All has just launched its Music Leadership Programme and an exciting series of webinars to develop teachers’ skills, so we caught up with Head of Programmes Anna Williams-Haines to find out more…

First things first: what was the last piece of music you enjoyed listening to, and why?

Just this morning I was listening to a recording of the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain playing their cover of The Good, The Bad and The Ugly theme. It’s a very cheery, innovative and interesting arrangement, so I really enjoyed it. It’s just a bit silly and fun, but clever!

Tell us about your previous experience as a music teacher.

When I first started out in my career, I trained with the Teach First programme and worked for two years in a secondary school in the West Midlands, before moving to London and working full-time in another secondary school for a year.

I’d also been getting involved with National Orchestra for All in its early stages and nominated some of the young people I taught to become inaugural NOFA members!

After three years of teaching, an opportunity came up to work with OFA’s founder, Marianna, and together we developed the Modulo Programme.

Although I had a music degree, I didn’t have much experience in actually leading an ensemble – something we’ve found is the experience of lots of music teachers, so we launched Modulo to help other teachers like me develop this skill and build up a culture of music making in schools. In my current role I oversee NOFA and Modulo – and now, our shiny new Music Leadership Training programme!

Orchestras for All’s Artistic Patron, Sian Edwards, shares her expertise on conducting

Are there any challenges for music teachers in relation to inclusion and diversity?

One of the most important things to balance in music education is making space to explore students' musical interests alongside encouraging them to discover music outside their comfort zone.

It’s important that music is taught with real authenticity and to share the interesting, and sometimes challenging, journeys music has been on. It’s also important to teach young people that all musical genres and backgrounds are equally valid and equally interesting.

Were there any standout moments while working in education?

For me, teaching has always been about making great music. I think the best way you can learn about music is to experience it, not just write or speak about it. Sometimes you have those little lightbulb moments with a young person who didn’t previously think they were particularly musical, but then showed amazing musical progress and grew in confidence.

I have a lot of happy memories of school assembly and class performances that were those significant ‘mini moments’ of progress for students! It’s so important to give them that encouragement and validation, particularly if they’re struggling in other subjects or have special needs but are excelling in music.

Giving young people the opportunity to perform and share their skills on larger scales was another really important part of the role for me: bringing a whole class to perform at the Barbican on their ukuleles was a special moment where they surprised themselves – and their parents – with what they were capable of.

You’ve just launched Music Leadership Training at OFA – what's it all about?

We want to kickstart an open culture of music-making in schools that enables teachers and young people to create new ensembles regardless of type of instrument or skill level.

It can often feel like a struggle for teachers who may have the musical skills but lack in confidence because they’ve never had any formal conducting training at university or gone down the traditional academic route. At the heart of MLT is a sense that everybody has the potential to be an ensemble leader.

It’s all about having the confidence to lead fun and impactful rehearsals, personalised to the needs of the people in your ensemble, and planning well-arranged repertoire that suits a wide range of skill levels. All music leaders have the potential to progress and develop their artistic vision for an ensemble; we want to help guide them on this journey.

While the modules are designed to suit a music leader for ensembles at a wide range of skill levels, the content is what we view as good practice for ensemble leadership, whether you’re working with a beginner violin group or the London Symphony Orchestra!

Which modules have been popular with music teachers so far?

The first module, ‘Preparing to Lead an Ensemble’, is actually free to access, so that one has been very popular! It’s a great introduction to the three elements explored across the modules: conducting, structuring an ensemble rehearsal and approaches to arranging a piece of music for mixed-skill levels.

We’ve also got a module called ‘Learning by Ear’, which is all about aural learning approaches and thanks to our amazing partners, The English Folk Dance and Song Society, this will be free to access as well. It’s a handy step-by-step guide to creating a performance without using any notation – and we’ve had some really positive feedback.

“I would think about who is in your group, what their individual needs are and how you can support each one of them in a personalised way”, says Anna William-Haines.

What’s the one piece of advice you would give to other music teachers who want to run an inclusive ensemble?

I would think about who is in your group, what their individual needs are and how you can support each one of them in a personalised way to have a really enjoyable time during rehearsals. Of course, you want an amazing performance to come out of it, but rehearsals are where you build the skills of young people and the musical identity of your ensemble.

One of our other MLT modules, ‘Inclusive Rehearsals’, can help teachers and music leaders with this specifically. It includes a fictional case study of a school with young people who have specific needs, and takes you on a journey to help you reflect on how to make an ensemble rehearsal work for them.

And finally, what are your plans for 2021 – do you have any exciting projects in the pipeline?

Oh yes, we’ve just launched our new season of the Modulo Programme – we’re really excited about it and even though we can’t meet up in person this time, the pandemic won’t be stopping us! We’ll be running everything online for as long as we need to, and everyone aged 11-18 who attends a state secondary school is invited to join us.

It’s free to sign up in 2021 and you’ll even have the opportunity to join online classes with our wonderful orchestra partners – the City of London Sinfonia, BBC Philharmonic and City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. We’ve also planned an exclusive series of live webinars on music leadership training for this year (see below for dates). The dream is to do some of these musical activities in person by the summer – but if not, we’ll be sure to find a way!

Are you a secondary school teacher or music leader and looking to boost your skills? Sign up to our Music Leadership Training programme and stay tuned for our forthcoming series of webinars.