Natural England

9 April 2008

Natural England has been closely involved with an enterprising project, which brought together one of our spotlight Nature Reserves, a Shropshire school, a world famous photographer and a renowned jazz legend and created an inspirational musical concert. The concert was the finale to a campaign of activity to celebrate the Stiperstones NNR 25th anniversary. The campaign included walks, talks and a collaborative photo competition with a regional newspaper.

Pupils from the Mary Webb School and Science college were set the challenge of composing a jazz piece based on the dramatic landscape of their local National Nature Reserve - The Stiperstones . Their work was to echo the famous “Stiperstones Suite” written by internationally acclaimed jazz musician, Clark Tracey 20 years ago.

In a project covering several months, the pupils kicked off their work with a magical field visit to The Stiperstones NNR led by Tom Wall (Reserve manager), to learn about its associated folklore, geology, natural history and wildlife. Clark Tracey was also involved with the pupils through musical workshops where he helped develop and progress the youngster’s work.

The culmination of all this hard work was the concert held at the Mary Webb School on 19 March, in which the pupils performed their compositions in front of an audience of over 300 people. The pupils rose to the challenge superbly, and performed their pieces with a maturity which belied their years. Tears were shed as the emotion of the evening took over and the concert will be remembered within the community for years to come.

Following the pupils performance, there was a rare opportunity to see Clark Tracey and his quintet perform the original ‘Stiperstones Suite’. We also heard from Jim Mould - Head of Music at Mary Webb School, Tom Wall who talked about the importance of The Stiperstones National Nature Reserve, and Ben Osborne, Shell Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2007 who also provided images for this project.

NE provided funding for the project, along with the Shropshire Hills AONB, Blue Remembered Hills project. The foundations for further partnership work between Natural England and the Mary Webb School have been laid as proceeds from ticket sales are going towards similar projects in the future.

All in all, a truly magnificent evening and the pleasure and enjoyment on the faces of both participants and audience made us feel proud of Natural England`s involvement.