Learning Through Music

Magna Cantata is a brand new children’s musical showing at Salisbury Cathedral between the 7th – 10th July. It has been devised to tell the story of Magna Carta, making it accessible for children and adults alike. The music will be engaging and lively, enjoyable and fun to learn, and the script will help embed the story of Magna Carta.

The performance has been designed for a chorus of around 200 young singers over four nights with different local schools participating each night. Children will contribute their thoughts about a modern day Charter of rights as part of the performance.

The performance is on a large scale: it is semi-staged with direction from professional musical and artistic directors, including quality staging, projection, and sound provision. In addition, there are workshops in schools about how to create costumes, thereby explaining the costumes of the time. Participating schools will receive continuous professional development (CPD) for their teachers, to help develop capacity in music teaching. Older students will be soloists, band members, and mentors to younger children to help develop their confidence.

Involving school children in such a high profile project and venue will give the Magna Cantata great prominence and ensure the support and involvement of the children’s families. It is estimated at 1600 family members will attend the Salisbury Cathedral performances alone. For many, it will be their first experience of such an event, and the audience will gain in their knowledge and understanding of Magna Carta. The work will then be available to schools more widely as a free resource to perform their own school-based version.

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Sir Robert Worcester

Chairman, Magna Carta Committee

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