Evening Telegraph (First Edition)
Buses could play host to ‘spontaneous’ concerts
“SPONTANEOUS” orchestra concerts could be set to take place around the streets of Dundee — and even on buses.
As part of a £2.2 million scheme, anti-poverty project Big Noise is set to launch in the city to make “permanent social change” in the Douglas area.
The programme uses music and the experience of being part of an orchestra to improve the futures of local children and families.
As it bids to raise awareness about the event, acting chief executive Colin McKerchar, of Sistema Scotland, which is part-funding the programme — said once it has hired musicians they will perform in random places across Douglas to raise awareness.
He said: “We hope to start the real fun stuff in spring 2017, with things like spontaneous concerts on streets, in schools and on buses around Douglas.”
Mr McKerchar was speaking as he revealed to the Tele that he hopes the Big Noise group can have a designated office in Douglas Community Centre as early as August.
He said: “We are hoping to have the office in place at the Douglas Community Centre so we have taken community members up to Torry in Aberdeen where we have had the project in place for a year, so they could see what it looks like there.
“We would like to have the office space set up and a project manager in place this autumn so the finer details can be put in place.
“We’d then like to recruit four or five musicians and have them in place by spring 2017.
“After that we’re hoping to have youngsters getting involved in August 2017.
“At that point, we’d like to have primary one and primary two pupils to have 30 minutes in a classroom twice a week and then after school activities, probably at Claypotts after school.” In the meantime, discussions continue over where the instruments themselves could be stored and Mr McKerchar also wants to keep pushing to get the community clued up with the process. He said: “Over the course of this year we will be doing quite a lot of community integration work. “On in-service days we will visit a couple of schools which will take part, such as Claypotts Primary, explaining how the project works to teachers and what to expect.” Colin McKerchar