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Norfolk children enjoy Big concert!

The Sound Stories project began in January 2010 with a training session for primary school teachers who were keen to try out new ideas for musical activities in the classroom. Led by Hannah Conway, the teachers discussed how they could use a story - in this case Ed Vere's book Mr Big - to inspire creative music making.

Mr Big is a gorilla whose scary appearance frightens off potential friends, until his beautiful piano playing persuades them of his real gentle nature. The character, who is "big on the outside but small on the inside", certainly lends itself to descriptive music, from his thumping footsteps to his lonely tears.

Following the training session, Hannah visited the six schools - Barford, Barnham Broom, Browick Road, Morley, Spooner Row and Wicklewood - accompanied by musicians from Britten Sinfonia. Leading on from work the children had already done in class, she helped them to develop their musical ideas and create whole-class compositions based on the Mr Big story.

Finally, all the pupils came together for a Mr Big concert. Bringing their Mr Big masks, letters to Mr Big, gorilla collages and pictures of the city at night, it was clear that the children had really taken the story to heart, and were keen to hear the music that the Britten Sinfonia string quintet had chosen to illustrate it. After introducing the two violins, viola, cello and (the children's favourite) the double bass, Hannah told the story to a rapt audience. Winter from Vivaldi's Four Seasons provided a perfect illustration of the frightened citizens running away from the gorilla, with a Dvorak waltz showing Mr Big's gentler side and Leroy Anderson's Typewriter providing the background for some frenetic typing of letters to the gorilla. With a final Hokey Cokey we were finished, leaving a hall full of excited children to compare masks and talk to the musicians.

And what's the best praise following a concert for young children? Well, as one of the teachers pointed out, not one child needed the toilet during the hour-long concert: "A testament to their involvement"!