Living in the Rhythm
As an Arts Mark Platinum School, Collingwood places creativity and the Arts front and centre of what we offer.
Our Monday and Thursday Options sessions give our young people the opportunity to explore a wide variety of the exciting creative possibilities offered here at Collingwood. We are lucky to have a fully equipped film/ recording studio on site as well as a brand-new Performing Arts Hub – a dedicated space for music, movement and creativity.
As the centrepiece of this year’s CAN (Collingwood Arts Network) festival, planned to coincide with Child Mental Health Week, we came up with the idea of having our students devise a school song which we could record at Collingwood and share with the world.
The Aukestra Connection
North-East music legends Aukestra are a truly unique band in every sense. A musical collective made up of people with and without neurodiverse needs and disabilities, playing professionally at a high level.Their annual visits to Collingwood as part of our regular CAN Festival never fail to inspire and entertain our young people. The Media Arts College’s uniquely deep association with Aukestra has become so positive and productive that we have become full creative partners with the band.
This year’s project with Aukestra commenced a full six months before their February residency at Collingwood.We workshopped and recorded lyrics, melody lines and chord sequences devised by our young people in the Collingwood studio. The resulting tracks were sent to Aukestra who then took them into their own studio to add their own brand of magic. The resulting tracks were passed back to Collingwood and the process continued. This amazing, long-distance jam session resulted in the song you can hear here -”Living In The Rhythm.”
During their visit, Aukestra workshopped further with our young people, adding the final parts to the track in our studio and even performing a live version during the Aukestra concerts that concluded the band’s three day residence
Living in the Rhythm - The Teaser Video
For Child Mental Health Week, our creative partners Aukestra capped a fantastic 3 days working with our young people.
“Living in The Rhythm” shares a message of positivity, self-esteem and pride in Collingwood’s shared values of Heroism, Humanity and Victory.
The teaser video here is only an excerpt from the finished track. Our Media students are now working on a video to accompany the full final track.
You will soon be able to hear the song and watch the accompanying video here – watch this space
