Off to the Moon!
by Kwamé Ryan
with Childrens' BBC, U.K.

SWAY

In January 2019, I was approached by Founder and CEO of the Chineke! Foundation, created in 2015 to provide career opportunities to established and up-and-coming Black and ethnically diverse classical musicians, invited me to conduct the Chineke! Orchestra for the Children's BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall, to be produced and recorded for broadcast on Sunday and Monday July 21 & 22, 2019.

Featuring works by George Friedrich Handel, Jessie Montgomery, John Adams, Giacomo Puccini, Aaron Copland, Iain Farrington, Benjamin Britten and a new piece, entitled Earth, written for the show by Hans Zimmer, the event was entitled Off to the Moon, in commemoration of the 50^th anniversary of the first moon landings.

The cast for the performances included the full slate of Children's BBC presenters:

YolanDa Brown

from 'Yolanda's Band Jam'

Nigel Clarke

from 'The Baby Club'

Justin Fletcher

from 'Something Special', 'Justin's House' and 'Gigglebiz'

Chris Jarvis

from 'CBeebies Stargazing' and 'Show Me, Show Me'

Maddie Moate

from 'Do You Know?'

Cat Sandion

from 'CBeebies House' and 'Magic Door'

as well as British Sign Language Interpreter Angie Newman, the BBC Singers and the 300-strong CBeebies Prom Children's Choir comprising singers from school choirs across the U.K. The production was written by Andrew McCaldon and directed by Children's BBC producer Angela Young.

Process

While pre-production for this highly complex television production involved some of the typical elements a concert or semi-staged musical - score study, familiarization with historical background, coordination of separate orchestral, solo and choral sections, this event, tailored for the enjoyment but also education of a very young audience, was scripted from the first second to the last, and required the participation of the conductor as a speaking actor, interacting with the Children's BBC presenters and the audience.  As is common, when conducting for live (or “as though live”) television the timing of the show was timed to the second and only edited for multi-camera presentation, but not for time.

Formal pre-production began at BBC HQ in London on July 1, 2019 and involved the following processes:

• Script Editing
• Bespoke Orchestra Compositions for Transitions
• Creation of the Performance Score with Script Inserts
• Staging Rehearsals
• Soloist Rehearsals
• Choir Rehearsals
• Orchestra Rehearsals
• Filming of Supplementary Interviews
• Coordination of Live Orchestra with Programmed Electronics to a Click Track

The final rehearsal process was very short, encompassing 4 hours of staging/camera rehearsal, 4 hours of orchestra alone rehearsal and one 3-hour General Rehearsal with orchestra, choir, soloists, cameras and stage effects. The astonishingly efficient and professional BBC team made this possible. Following the General Rehearsal, the next time the production came together would be in front of an audience of 5000 live, and several tens of millions on TV.

Performance Approach

Apart from the purely technical aspects of conducting such large forces in such an iconic and imposing venue - one at which I had performed as a teenager, but not as a professional, the specific requirements of performing for a mixed audience of adults and very young children were relevant here. This expressed itself in two ways:

• The awareness that the function of the performance is highly pedagogical, leaving a strong memory imprint on its young audience. This demanded heightened clarity and spontaneity in the interactions on stage, despite the straight tracks on which such a complex production runs.
• An accommodation of an environment that can be quiet enough to hear a pin drop, or deafeningly loud, not unlike a rock concert based on the state of absorption or excitement of the CBBC viewers when, for example, they recognize their favorite presenter live in front of them for the first time.

Performance Experience

The performance itself was thrilling. What seemed to be a very short production period was buttressed by the tremendous experience and professionalism of the team.  The entire team delivered the goods. Of the many highlights, which included the seemingly magical but scripted interaction between the animated characters on the giant screen behind the orchestra, or the emergence of the Apollo 11 rocket from the floor of the Albert Hall in the middle of the audience, the opportunity to premiere Earth the piece written for the show by Hans Zimmer and the amazing (and long) autograph session after the show alongside the CBBC stars, stand out.

Chineke! Orchestra played very well and the relationship was such that a tour of venues in the Netherlands and the UK is planned for 2022. Standing on the stage of the Royal Albert Hall for a Prom I was conducting was one of my life-long dreams, one I did not expect to come to fruition in quite this way! 

Off to the Moon continues to be broadcast in reruns on Children's BBC.