“The recent Finish This project has completely raised the profile of composing in our school… It was the most exciting project, broke down so many barriers and was completely inclusive.”
Bringing together a fusion of opera, film and animation: Finish This… is a creative springboard for collaborative composition work in the classroom. Using an especially commissioned operatic piece, and supported with teacher CPD and toolkit package resources.
Over the 2023/24 academic year, 14,000 pupils from over 200 different schools across the country, have taken on the role of ENO Composer. We asked each class to create and produce their own music through an invitation to respond to, and resolve, Omar Shahryar’s purposefully unfinished operatic piece, ‘Blue, Red, Yellow’. Each class is tasked with choosing a fourth
colour, and composing a 1-1.5 minute composition that represents their chosen colour and finishes off Omar’s piece.
Schools were provided with Teacher CPD training, toolkit resources, a suite of digital films and an operatic piece, especially commissioned for young audiences.
We are thrilled to present and celebrate the first music compositions and creative work here, with another two uploads to look forward to later in the year. A huge congratulations to all our young composers.
Participating schools
Explore our interactive map to discover our 210 schools and hear some of their brilliant class music compositions.
You can select an option below to filter the displayed map markers to show KS2 Primary, KS3 Secondary or SEND schools, and click any marker to access submissions from that school.
You can also explore our full playlists:
Explore SoundCloud music tracks
Meet some of our young ENO composers
Photo Gallery
Explore some of the students’ creative work
Photo Gallery
What Teachers have to say:
In our feedback survey from the 2022-23 year:
- 100% of teachers said they were likely to recommend this project to another school
- 100% of teachers agreed or strongly agreed that pupils developed composition skills over the course of the project
- 88% of non-music specialist teachers agreed or strongly agreed they felt more confident teaching music in the classroom
- 89% of teachers agreed or strongly agreed that pupils improved their self-belief, confidence and resilience.
“Both pupils and myself have thoroughly enjoyed this experience. The pupils were motivated throughout and thoughtfully worked during the sessions. I have also learnt a great deal.”
“This is such an excellent project. Our children really enjoyed it. It got them using so much musical vocabulary and thinking about notation and musical creativity in a very different way.”
“This project has been enjoyed by all the students and staff in Kahlo class we have all learned new skills and it has help me push the bounderies, so that the students in my class could all join in and achieve.”
“I have been teaching Music in Special Schools around Manchester and Cheshire for 20 years and this is the most inclusive and exciting project I have seen
over the years. The work Emily has done to truly ‘include’ SEND is brilliant.”
“Thank you for this wonderful project. My class has absolutely loved creating their turquoise piece. They have learnt so much from this project about being a composer. Many have been inspired to test their creativity and have all spoken very warmly about the other things they have learnt from this experience. To persevere, work collaboratively, listen and improve, how to try out different ideas and listen for what works best , even when this means making tough choices about the sounds that didn’t work as well. Their focus and excitement about coming to music to work on this project has been amazing.”
Get Involved
Booking for 2024-25 is now open.
Complete the booking request form before Monday 17 June 2024 to sign up.
You can contact the Finish This… team on [email protected] or for more information visit www.eno.org/engage/finish-this
Credits:
Music composed by Omar Shahryar. Libretto by Ruth Mariner.
Conductor | Olivia Clarke, Actor | Mikhail Sen.
Illustrations by Alec Doherty. Films produced by Tmax Productions.
Primary Education Consultant: Sarah Lewis
SEND Education Consultant: Emily Stratford
Secondary Education Consultant: Isabella Mayne