It’s game on for the Dumfries and Galloways young musicians with a unique opportunity to play a role in the professional video gaming world.
Under the title Immerse, Absolute Classics is delivering a week-long course in professional video games composition, audio production and integration, culminating in a live performance of the music by the Tinderbox Orchestra in Glasgow in November. The youngsters will also be given the opportunity to have insight days in professional games audio studios.
The project, which is brought to Dumfries and Galloway by Absolute Classics and supported by Creative Scotland’s Youth Music Initiative, is aimed at young people studying higher level music and will provide unique experiences of professional level music-making activities such as composition, audio engineering and production.
The course take place at The Stove, Dumfries, from 16 to 20 July.
During the week, participants will have the opportunity to be mentored by and shadow a range of creative and technical professionals working within the interactive media industries. These include Scottish composer Luci Holland; Solid Audioworks’ director Will Morton; Edinburgh College sound engineer Jane Datony; and games researcher Mona Bozdog.
The project’s finale will showcase the young people’s compositions from all of Absolute Classics’ education and outreach projects in an innovative and interactive games music concert experience called Immerse which takes place in Glasgow’s Centre for Contemporary Art on Sunday, 11 November.
Education and development co-ordinator, Narelle Freeman, said: “This is a unique and exciting opportunity for young people to take part in the immersive world of video gaming and learn from innovative professionals.
“Young musicians will be shown how to work with the latest technologies used in music and audio production and integration and will have the opportunity to work with and shadow our team of creative professionals to learn skills and knowledge from across the interactive audio, music and concert performance creative industries.
“There is no doubt such experiences play a vital role in developing our young people’s personal, community and professional lives, but this need is even more acute for our vast region. Without the activities we provide through our education and outreach programme, our young people cannot access this mentorship and support.”
For further information and to book one of the limited places on the Immerse project, visit www.theimmerse.site
Absolute Classics is a charitable organisation working to bring exciting and engaging music-making activities into the region’s remote communities.
The charity’s education and outreach programmes focus on harnessing the importance of music in young people’s lives, to inspire engagement with building their own skills, aspirations, potential and commitment to personal achievement.
The popular masterclasses during Absolute Classics’ festival run include one-to-one mentorship with some of the world’s most celebrated classical musicians. The programme also includes performances and workshops in schools and a mental health awareness workshop for young people on 21 August at the Stove.
During last year’s programme, Absolute Classics’ education and outreach project reached over 1,200 of the region’s young people under 26, by bringing world-class musicians to the region for concerts and, while they were here, taking the opportunity for them to deliver international standard one-to-one masterclasses, group workshops and targeted skills development projects.
The charity is calling on the public for support to extend the programme to as many of the region’s young people as possible.
Narelle explained: “We have ambitions to deliver the benefits of our education and outreach programme for many more young people living in remote communities throughout Dumfries and Galloway, regardless of the equipment available locally. But to achieve this, we need mobile technology.
“If you are able to support us, even in the smallest way, it will make an enormous difference in how many young people we can reach. You can support our Education and Outreach activities directly through Just Giving via the button on our website and Facebook pages, or by text DGYP77 £5 to 70070.”
The 2018 Absolute Classics Festival takes place between 3 and 12 August. To book a place on any of the courses and to access details of the festival programme, visit www.absoluteclassics.co.uk.
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