The inspiration for the project is the life story and photographs of Walton Burrell. Walton was born profoundly deaf in 1863. He took about 20,000 photos during his lifetime, approx. 3,000 of which are today looked after by Suffolk Archives. About 2,000 of these were purchased in 2000 by the Friends of Suffolk Archives.
The project has included 26 students from the Deaf Resource Bases at Westgate Community Primary School and King Edward VI School, aged 5-15. The music leads on the project were composer James Redwood and flautist Ruth Montgomery, who is herself deaf.
The students have taken part in multiple activities throughout the autumn term of 2023 including a visit to Great War Huts and five music workshops to create new pieces of music inspired by Walton Burrell.
The concert took place on 4 December 2023 at King Edward VI school. Students performed four new pieces of music created for the project inspired by Walton and his photos. A selection of Walton’s photos was curated to appear on the big screen during the different pieces of music, bringing his work to a wider audience for the first time.
The students from both schools gave very positive feedback. The older KES students commented that “the music felt like it brought Walton’s pictures to life” and “When the man was playing the cello I could feel it in my chest even though my hearing aid wasn’t working well I felt involved still.” The younger Westgate students said “I loved playing with the orchestra, it was so fun. I now love playing music” and “James was really good at patterns. The concert was AMAZING. I became more confident.”
The project was a partnership between Suffolk Archives, Orchestras Live, Britten Sinfonia, Suffolk Music Education Hub, and both partner schools. Read the full project summary here.