Confluence

Shaftesbury Pyramid Schools

Karen Wimhurst was commissioned to write a millennium celebration piece for the Shaftesbury Pyramid Schools Trust, which brings together eight local first schools, two middle schools and Shaftesbury High School once a year for a grand concert. The piece, Blue Pearl, was designed to be performed by a choir of 300 children with two school orchestras and the Shaftesbury Big Band. In two workshops at King Alfred's Middle School in Shaftesbury, children worked with some of the water sounds to be used in the piece.

Karen describes the work in a programme note: "Blue Pearl tells of a mega-millennium plumbing disaster. First we have our precious 'blue pearl', our planet Earth, distinct from all other planets with its life-giving water. The first song honours this precious resource and quickly takes us to the point we have reached today in which water is a domestic resource, flowing into our homes at the turn of a tap. Most of us have experienced that terrible moment when you are faced with a burst pipe and water shooting out of it at an unstoppable rate. In this piece the water just keeps on coming. Eventually we are left with a flood of Noah-like proportions in which the children are looking for the first patch of land. Of course, this year is the millennium and it is our children who will be left, searching out a new destiny for our planet, navigating their way amongst the rough waters towards a new home".

The piece, amongst others, was performed in Shaftesbury twice on 4th July 2000 to huge audiences of friends, family and other interested spectators.