PLAYground Orchestra 2022 - Winter

After the huge success of Draíocht’s last two PLAYground Orchestra Projects - which reached 7,000 children, aged 4-13 years, in 12 D15 primary schoolyards last Christmas – and then another 5000 children, aged 4-13 years, in 9 D15 primary schoolyards in May - we are thrilled to reunite this 29-piece impressive orchestra and return to 9 more D15 Primary Schools again in October, plus host 2 Concerts for TY Students and a Family Concert in Draíocht.

It’s taken a full year but by the end of 2022, every primary school in Dublin 15, and therefore, every primary school going child in Dublin 15 will have seen, heard, danced and sang along to Draíocht’s 29-piece PLAYGROUND ORCHESTRA in their school! That's approximately 17,000 children, aged 4-13 years of age, plus their teachers and support staff.

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PLAYground Orchestra creates an unexpected, fun and extravagant ‘pop-up’ musical engagement experience for children and young people, through the placement of an impressive 29-piece orchestra right into the spaces where children play - into their school's playground or gym. This placement allows both children and musicians to play alongside one another.

All performances are “pop-up” in design, occurring during the children's yard/play time, ensuring that the children and young people are not expecting the performances to take place. This element of the project allows the children to engage with a greater autonomy than a traditional auditorium setting may allow - their yard space or gym space - allowing them the freedom to move, sing and dance in an undirected manner.

Teachers of participating schools will be invited to use specifically designed video resources that will support them to link the performance with the music element of the curriculum. It will also equip teachers with the vocabulary and knowledge to facilitate classroom discussion / conversation after the performance.

Placing a live orchestra outside its usual spaces, creates an outreach model that allows, for many young people, a very first experience of an orchestra, an exposure to a wide range of instruments, and an incredible experience of live music. It also creates new spaces for music and musical performance. For schools and the community, it feeds into the development of aural literacy, critical thinking and local creative discourse.

Applications Now Closed

The Project has been created by Draíocht in collaboration with Shay Lally of The Mobile Music School with funding from Fingal County Council and the Local Live Performance Programming Scheme from the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media.