Workshops (English)

The Stolz Quartet and music in your company

The Stolz Quartet was created by a dream, by the passionate conviction that it is possible to present classical music and con- temporary music theatre in a way that creates a rich and beautiful experience for the listener, the spectator and the musicians; an experience that genuinely touches and links everyone present.

The quartet likes to find situations that lie just outside of the usual habitat of music or theatre. These can vary from performances at unexpected locations, to projects created for a special audience, to a workshop by, for and with the audience, to the creation and performance of an entire composition made by a company’s employees.

Collaborative Creative Practices

‘Generating enthusiasm among a broad group of people, for the most part an audience that’s new to classical and modern music, by means of a hands-on musical experience in which they play and work together with the performing artists.’

Communicating and building bridges though the medium of music.

Creating your own compositions.

The Stolz Quartet has many years’ experience in the giving of Community Creative Practices Workshops.

A tailor-made workshop or extended project is developed for each individual target group, engaging the participants in music based on their own characters and interests. The actual content is always dependent on the skills and prior knowledge/experience of the participants, as well as the amount of time available, in order to create a pleasant and captivating experience for all.

This is achieved by means of the experiences we’ve gained giving our earliest workshops, and especially through the use of the Collaborative Art method developed in London (Guildhall and South Bank). The result is the creation of a unique composition developed in a very short amount of time and based on the creative input of the participants.

Here’s an example of how a composition can be developed:

The Stolz Quartet develops a theme for the workshop, together with the client. The workshop consists of several components, each component deals with one aspect of the final composition. Rhythm, sound, playing together; everything is covered.

We often begin by having the group make up their own ‘group yell’, created as follows:

  1. The group stands in a circle, everyone stamps their feet rhythmically in a march tempo; people take turns calling out their name in the rhythm that’s being stamped.
  2. Everyone keeps on marching, now people call out their name again, this time placing emphasis (or an accent) on just one syllable.
  3. The marching continues, now only the accented syllables are said out loud.
  4. We then march in a block of eight counts, everyone claps their hands once on the beat of their choice.
  5. We end up with each individual calling out their accented syllable on their chosen beat: this creates a rhythmic pattern made up of various sounds.

Dynamics and pitch are added to the rhythmic pattern, in order to create a ‘group yell’ that’s unique to the group.

The resulting composition starts with the ‘group yell’, followed by the sections: Clapping, Messages, Signs and Graphic Design.

If you’re curious about how all this looks and sounds, we’d be happy to meet to discuss it in more detail.