Baroque Odyssey Schools Project

On Friday 17 October 2025, pupils from four Brighton primary schools came together to listen to and take part in a performance with Brighton Early Music Festival which saw children as young as six singing music by Handel and Purcell. This project was part of the Festival’s commitment to education and outreach work and encouraging music-making in the next generation.

At lunchtime, over 100 six & seven year old pupils from Queens Park, Rudyard Kipling and St Mark’s primary schools in East Brighton took part in an informal sharing in St George’s Church which gave them the opportunity to show their parents the songs they had learned, and to hear baroque instrumental music from Ensemble Augelletti.

In the afternoon, nine and ten year olds from Stanford Junior School rehearsed with a professional orchestra, before taking part in a public performance to an audience of 180 alongside the BREMF Community Choir, professional soloists from Fieri Consort, and players from Ensemble Augelletti and Lowe Ensemble.

The Baroque Odyssey performance told the story of Homer’s Odyssey, with the young people travelling with Telemachus to many magical lands accompanied by music from Telemann’s Water Music, before returning home with a rousing rendition of Purcell’s Harvest Home song.