“I’m gonna win!”

In the small library, with the shelves pushed back to clear space for the week’s music activities, students from Room 4 in St Mary’s School are rehearsing their combined rap for their final performance on Friday. It’s their turn to spend time working with the CSO musicians who have set themselves up in their school for a week for the Karawhiua! Let’s Play! Residency programme. During the week, the musicians work with students from each class and year group on various music projects that are created to not only help them learn music skills, but also to develop their creativity, teamwork, communication skills, and confidence, amongst other things.

At this moment, Room 4 are working on the project ‘Rap it Up’, where the class wrote lyrics about what they wanted to do in the future, and are now rapping it to a musical accompaniment of ukuleles, violins and drums played together by groups of students in the class.

“The kids are really enjoying it,” said teacher aide Charlotte Watson. “At the beginning, we weren’t sure how into it they would be because they were older [Years 7s and 8s], but they’ve been loving it, truly.

“The other day, Mia [one of the students] said to me, ‘Miss Watson, I’ve got my rap all sorted!’. I think they’re excited about the concert.”

When asked what they liked the most, the students responded that they enjoyed playing the ukuleles and drums, and one student enthusiastically volunteered he enjoyed “100 per cent of everything”.

Nicola Anthony, whose class of Years 0s and 1s are learning about pitch, pulse and rhythm in ‘Tree Song’, said her students were loving the activities with the CSO musicians. “Our kids don’t have a lot of opportunities [to do music] except piano lessons, but you’ve got to be older. We do singing at school.

“It’s been fantastic. A lot of our kids possibly don’t get to go to any shows. Even just touching one of the violins and to get a real look at it was really good.”

Her students were a bit too young to understand that they were going to perform for the whole school in the final concert on Friday, but they were excited to see what the other classes were doing.

The lunchtime violin club with CSO First Violin Cathy Irons, which was offered to students in the senior school, is full to bursting, with some students needing to share violins.

The CSO has been conducting two residencies over the past week; one in St Mary’s and one in Tahunanui School in Nelson.

CSO Principal Bassoon Selena Orwin, who is one of the musicians working in Tahunanui School, said the students have been incredibly enthusiastic about the week. “One class was so interested in the music activities we have been doing that they found a story book in the classroom and brought that to their session because it had music in the back with a song.

“They asked one of us to play it for them and [Associate Principal Clarinet] Jonathan was immediately surrounded by the children, who found the clarinet entrancing. It had a real ‘Pied Piper’ feel.”

Tahunanui School principal Barbara Bowen said it had been a really special week and the children were really enjoying their experience with creating music. "They like the sound they make on the drums, they like playing the ukuleles, and they love how the tutors are supportive. They told me, 'They taught us how to make up a rhythm and now we're playing it.' There's a lot of excitement around that process.

"We've seen huge progress over the week. Every group is responsive to the tutors. We have some difficult kids and there have been a few tantrums but the next day they came back."

Barbara said the musicians were very responsive to the groups' needs. "We've got a really mixed community here at Tahunanui. We've got some of the richest families and some of the very very poorest. Some of the children are in emergency accommodation, the women's refuge, they go through breakfast club, and they're a bit shy and suspicious of people but they've really opened up to the musicians and the projects. It's very precious."

All of the students she had spoken to said they wanted to go on to do more music. "They're all excited about the possibilities for creating music. The looks on their faces are priceless."

The CSO will be undertaking six Karawhiua! Let’s Play! Residency programmes in schools in Christchurch and the regions this year.