Christmas came early for four-year-old Anja when she met Birmingham music legend Roy Wood on the site of Symphony Hall's £13.2million foyer redevelopment.
Roy, formerly of E.L.O., Wizzard and The Move, was in the city to prepare for his performance at his annual Rockmas gig at Symphony Hall, which will feature the ten-piece Roy Wood Rock & Roll Band and guests. This year's concert from the I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday songwriter features special guests Mari Wilson, the Climax Blues Band, Mick Miller and Enigma Strings, as well as a number of surprises.
Ukulele-playing Anja is a member of The Strings Club, an award-winning music education company, which has recently been hosting Discovery Days at Symphony Hall to offer children age 4-11 a range of high-quality musical experiences to ignite and inspire children’s love of music.
When Anja met Roy she presented him with his own special ukulele as an early Christmas present.
The Making an Entrance project will deliver an extraordinary transformation of Symphony Hall: the state-of-the-art redevelopment will create dedicated spaces to host learning and participation projects and support a vital education programme that reaches over 24,000 people every year.
Christmas presence at Symphony Hall
Making an Entrance will be fantastic in creating new opportunities for young, local musicians to play Symphony Hall, and enable them to develop their skills and enjoy the experience of playing live
Roy Wood
We have been offering our free Discovery Day events in partnership with Symphony Hall for several years and it's been a sheer joy to see so many children aged 4-11 gain free access to live performances and playing an instrument. Our events usually include a packed audience and we love nothing more than when a child joins us at one of our other programmes including holiday camps, term time courses or after-school programmes. We look forward to working with Symphony Hall again in the future
Amy Cunningham, founder of The Strings Club
As a new parent, I’ve seen first-hand how children are introduced to music from such a young age without even realising – be it nursery rhymes or popular songs. The Strings Club amplifies each individual child’s musical journey and I look forward to continuing our work with The Strings Club to inspire the next generation’s love of music.
Chris Proctor, Head of Programme at Town Hall Symphony Hall