Winners for ‘Excellence in Musical Theatre’ at the Music & Drama Education Awards

We are delighted to announce that HMDT Music has won the Music & Drama Education Award for ‘Excellence in Musical Theatre’, for TRENCH BROTHERS.

‘Lauded as innovative, interesting, original and, representative with a wide range of easily useable resources’, Trench Brothers commemorated the achievements and contributions made by ethnic minority soldiers in the First World War with a cross-curricular education programme for primary schools, culminating in a new music theatre work by composers Julian Joseph and Richard Taylor, and librettist Tertia Sefton-Green, directed by Clare Whistler, and Freya Wynn-Jones, and designed by Neil Irish.

The project toured schools across London, Lancashire and Staffordshire culminating in October 2018 with large-scale performances at Brighton Dome featuring 250 local school children, students from our I Can Sing! programme and the Julian Joseph Jazz Academy, and artists including acclaimed singers Cleveland Watkiss and Damian Thantrey, actor Richard Sumitro, and the Singh Degun Duo, conducted by Lee Reynolds.

The Brighton performances included Letter songs written over the project’s duration by composers Michael Betteridge, Jenny Gould, Matthew King, James Redwood, and Omar Shahryar with participating schools.

Congratulations and thanks to all the schools, artists, educators, volunteers and partners who’ve participated in and contributed to the project since 2014.

To see performance highlights, the pre-performance talk, and the electronic programme, please click HERE.

You can also visit our legacy site to see the work of the London and Lancashire Schools by clicking HERE.

Tertia Sefton-Green and Adam Eisenberg being presented with the award by ABRSM Executive Director Jeremy Phillips [Left] and host & presenter Alan Titchmarsh [Right].