Prior Park College Collaborates with Celebrated Jazz Pianist
16 Oct 2014
Prior Park College is tapping into the extraordinary talents of its local community and teaming up with celebrated jazz pianist Jason Rebello, who is writing a musical suite specifically for the College’s music groups.
Jason Rebello is not only an inspirational jazz pianist, but has a truly impressive and versatile career that includes international touring with Sting and Jeff Beck, and working with Peter Gabriel, Joss Stone, Phil Collins and many others. Now based in Bath, Jason also has a mission to the next generation of musicians, and regularly runs music workshops in schools. Jason relishes working with young people, whom he describes as an inspiration because of their open-mindedness and readiness to take on new ideas, “…especially with the art of improvising, which shows us that we are more intuitively able to interact with life than we realise, if we learn to trust ourselves more. There is a huge pool of creativity in each of us, waiting to be tapped into”.
Mr Rebello, who was approached by Prior’s Director of Music, Mr Roland Robertson, says that the piece he is writing is inspired primarily from listening to the College’s award-winning Senior Chapel Choir. He explains: “The piece largely involves the choir, but also gives many instrumentalists a chance to shine too. Each piece features different, smaller groups – jazz quartet, wind quintet, pop/rock group, string ensemble – performing alongside the choir in a kind of dialogue. It is a mixture of all the music I love; jazz, classical, folk, pop.”
Mr Robertson is delighted with what he has seen of the score so far and excited to be working with such a versatile and adventurous musician: ‘This is a great adventure for all the performers, new ground, and a chance for them to get inside the style and passion of Jason’s music, and that of the other star performers he works with all the time.’
As part of his current residency with the Wiltshire Music Centre, Jason Rebello has also invited some Prior musicians to be part of the band for his concert with star of jazz and soul, Ola Onabule on 8 November. Jason is once again delighted to be working with such young musicians, whom he encourages to really explore their musical creativity: “I feel that in today’s world of high-pressure achieving, the opportunity to learn something like music, for its own sake, is a wonderful thing for youngsters. It teaches them self-discipline, confidence to express themselves, and gives them the wonderful feeling of being part of a team, all working to the same end.”
The students of Prior Park College are certainly in for a magical music experience.