The Future of Classical Music by Greg Sandow has long been one of my favorite blogs. His latest post was an account from Sally Whitwell about her “experience as a performer and composition workshop presenter for teenagers at the Perth International Arts Festival”; if you’re interested in creativity in music and music education, this is a must-read.

Whitwell was shocked, shocked that the festival had a hard time finding classical musicians to do creative workshops.

I won’t rehash the whole post – you should read the original to get the details of how she worked with the kids to use text and workshopped melodies to create a song (see below). The staff turned the ideas into a notated composition that was later performed:

“In my perfect world, all kids would have this opportunity to be creative with music.”

Amen.

Thanks Sally, and thanks Greg!