English

Wigmore Hall is situated in a quiet street just to the north of the busy shopping street, Oxford Street, in the heart of London's West End. Although it is best known for offering high-quality chamber music and solo recitals, it also hosts a rich educational programme as well. About 440 educational events run throughout the year constantly, except during the summer holidays. What sort of events are held there, and how?

Wigmore Hall has a history of over one hundred years. It opened on 31 May 1901 under the name of Bechstein Hall, next to the London showroom of the German piano maker, Bechstein. However, with the increase of anti-German sentiment during the First World War, Bechstein had to wind up their affairs in the UK by order of the Board of Trade, as well as other German companies. All their assets, including the hall and 137 pianos, were auctioned off in 1916. The hall itself was resurrected in 1917 and renamed Wigmore Hall, after the name of the street.

From its early period, the hall welcomed many of the most famous musicians of the day, including Busoni, Saint-Saens, Rubinstein, Casals, Cortot, Poulenc, and Britten, to name a few. Also, it saw many young talented musicians make their debut in London. With 537 seats including a balcony, and a stage which accommodates up to 15 performers, this small hall has established a reputation as a home for piano and vocal recitals, chamber music, early music, and jazz. As this is the music that has been enjoyed mainly at home, it aims to be both greatly impressive, yet at the same time intimate. It also hosts a concert series that support young musicians starting out on their career.

According to its concert calendar, Wigmore Hall hosts over 400 concerts a year, almost every night except for the summer holidays in August, including lunch time concerts mainly on Sundays and Mondays. The total sales of tickets amount to approximately 165,000 each year. In addition to that, amazingly, it also hosts over 400 educational events per year.

Brochures of Wigmore Hall Learning

Wigmore Hall Learning is the department that oversees the educational programme at Wigmore Hall, launched in 1994 under the name Wigmore Hall Community and Education. The department has devised creative events for people of all ages, levels and musical experience, using its rich resources, such as the hall facilities, materials, and network of musicians, musical works and the community. It aims at enhancing opportunities for those who are easily excluded from the regular art scene, to be inspired, learn, and make connections through music.

Wigmore Hall Learning started in response to the long felt needs of the hall itself, to work on broader potential audiences for the future, as well as the needs of its local community in the City of Westminster. It is now supported by funding from and its relationship with the City of Westminster, other musical and educational charities, and also by donations from individuals.

The programme is organized, well-balanced, and rich in variety, targeting toddlers, teenagers, adults and older people. Its main activities are as follows:

In the 2008-2009 season, 443 education programmes in total took place in 53 different settings, such as the hall, schools, nurseries, youth clubs and care centres, and 16,235 people attended them. Let's take a look at how those events at the hall were arranged throughout the year.

The number of events at Wigmore Hall held during the past year (January 2009 to December 2009), although this may vary according to how they are counted, is around 120. There are about 40 events during each season - January to March, April to July, and September to December. As you can see from the list below, events are held constantly throughout the year, but certain months are busier, such as February, May to June, and October to November, with almost daily events and more than one event per day. It is because most of the events are linked to certain concerts, and sometimes they devise more than one event out of the same concert, artists or materials, creating variation in the target or form of the events.

Looking at these 120 events in terms of their targets, 38 events are targeted at toddlers and children aged around 2 to 10 years old, 33 are for teenagers, and 82 are for adults in general. For convenience of classification, I labeled events specially devised for teenagers and those with a student discount as 'for teenagers', and talk and study events which are not specified at a particular target as 'for adults'; however, teenagers can attend the events 'for adults', obviously, so the division between these two is not fixed. When you divide the whole events into two groups, children and adults, they are roughly half and half.

Looking in terms of the form of the events, there are 4 groups - talks, study events, workshops, and concerts. Although 'talks' increase depending on the number of concerts, and some 'study' events are intensive, the average number of each form is balanced at around 10 per season. 'Talks' are about the programme, instruments or composers of the evening concert with the artists or experts, for 45 minutes before the concert. They are free or about £3 each.

'Study events' are one-off or series of programmes that investigate a certain theme. There are lectures, master classes, listening to recorded or live demonstration music, introductions for beginners, and close investigations of certain topics. They range from 2-3 hour courses, to whole-day programmes, combined with lectures, workshops and concerts. The average fee is a few pounds to over £10 each.

'Workshops' and 'Concerts' as educational events are devised specially for the target group, such as toddlers, students, and families, with the themes of certain instruments, composers and so on. The participants can learn about music while listening to live music, taking part in music making, or associating with pictures, stories, history, animation and manga, which attract young people. The fee is between £2 to £10.

Let us take a look at these events more closely next time!