Young girl stood on steps looking down at Turner Sims stage with rainbow lights highlighting the brickwork and audience sat either side

Intern Insights: Summer Family Day Recap

Our intern Megan gives us a recap of her experience during Summer Family Day 2024.

July 31, 2024

Summer Family Day 2024 was an absolute hit with both kids and parents alike! In anticipation of upcoming family events like Winter Family Day (Sunday 24 November), our Concert Promotions Intern, Megan Harrison takes a look back to July to show you what amazing family events are held here at Turner Sims…

On Sunday 30 June I got the amazing opportunity to help out on Summer Family Day and see the event first hand! Turner Sims and the nearby outside areas of Highfield campus were full of liveliness, music, and delicious food stalls. The day was filled with fun activities, music and performances that, together, created a day of musical family fun!

Throughout the day, the Turner Sims foyer was busy with face painting and crafts. Paper artist Nathan Ward ran an all-day drop-in workshop where children could create their own unique bugs. The face painting and crafts were extremely popular, and I saw lots of happy children with uniquely painted faces and others carrying around the paper bugs they had made.

The first event of the day was the David Gibb Big Band, which filled the morning with lots of noise in the main concert hall. I heard it was a really imaginative show! Soon after, there was a Big Bug Hunt in the gardens, where kids and families looked for all sorts of different insects on Highfield campus. The children were particularly keen on the stickers they got as a reward for finding all the bugs!

At the Community Stage, many local performers came to put on amazing shows. There was a great variety of people – we had a dance group and a local youth orchestra give fantastic performances. It was great to see Turner Sims and the community supporting these local artists.

Jham! was extremely popular, with the fusion of classical Indian dancing and more modern styles of music creating an exhilarating outdoor show. The audience was thrilled by the dancing and lots of people stood up and got involved in the dancing themselves!

In the afternoon, another show in the concert hall called JUMP was on. Following the creepy-crawly theme of this Family Day, JUMP, composed by Karen Wimhurst, combined field recordings of insects and amphibians with clarinet music.

The Puppetry and Conducting Workshop was held under the marquee. The workshop began with the puppet Pythagoras conducting for an accordion player, showing how his movements influenced her playing. After this, newspaper and tape were held out and the kids and grown-ups created their own puppets to conduct with! As someone who’s taken conducting classes, I think this was a really clever and engaging way of introducing conducting to children.

The final event of the day was Creative Beats Workshop, which ended summer Family Day on a high note. Led by Yetta and Emma, members of YES! Creative Beats from the Isle of Wight, kids and grownups played boom-whackers and hand percussion in time with recorded tunes. The energy from Yetta and Emma was amazing and kept everyone engaged, so much so that even the Arts at University of Southampton Student Ambassadors were joining in!

There was lovely positive audience feedback and families had an amazing time. The atmosphere the entire day was so vibrant and cheerful that I couldn’t help but enjoy myself!

Check out some of these amazing photos taken on the day by Nosa Malcolm…

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Intern Insights: Meet the Intern & Autumn 2024 Playlist

Get to know our new Concert Promotions intern and check out her top picks this season!

July 18, 2024

Hey there, my name’s Megan and I’ll be the Concert Promotions intern for this summer! I’m really excited to have this amazing opportunity to work at Turner Sims!

I’ve just finished second year doing music at the University of Southampton. I’m a lover of all things music: I’ve composed music for a variety of different instruments, and I’ve played in many ensembles such as classical orchestras and rock, folk and jazz bands as a flute and sax player. Since coming to Southampton, I’ve really enjoyed the vibrant music scene the city has, and I feel that I’ve discovered so many new kinds of music since coming here!

One venue that I’ve spent a lot of time in is, of course, Turner Sims! I’ve always been a fan of the lunchtime concert series and seeing the variety of different artists that perform there. I’ve also had the amazing opportunity to both perform and watch my course-mates and friends perform at Turner Sims. I decided to take on this internship because I love the venue and I believe that marketing is extremely important for musicians. I want to make sure that, during my internship, I can encourage as many people as possible to come to Turner Sims and enjoy what the venue has to offer! I’m extremely grateful to the team for giving me this great opportunity and I’m excited for what’s to come!

I’ve created a playlist for the upcoming autumn season with all my favourite tracks that I’ve discovered from artists in our upcoming season at Turner Sims. What better way to get a taste of the season then to listen to some of the tunes yourself?

Check out our Autumn 2024 season brochure here.

Courtney Pine – Tico Tico

To start us off, we have a tune from the legendary saxophonist Courtney Pine. His multi-cultural album is full of groove, energy and virtuosic soloing. For this track, Pine takes the theme from Tico-Tico no Fubá by Brazilian composer Zequinha de Abreu and adds his own jazz spin on it with sporadically fast soprano sax melodies and soloing alongside a beat that never lets up.

N’famady Kouyaté – Balafô Douma

One of my favourites from the playlist, N’famady Kouyaté’s earworm Balafô Douma seamlessly incorporates both Mandingue African and funk music. The combination of the balafon – a traditional wooden xylophone that Kouyaté’s plays, and horns creates an interesting blend of sounds. The improv sections in this track are particularly enjoyable, with the interwoven saxophone and trumpet melodies mashing well together, and the beginning of the guitar solo being particularly satisfying.

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N'famady Kouyaté - Balafô Douma (Official Music Video)

Will Gregory Moog Ensemble – Bouyancy Theory

The combination of quirky sounds from analogue synths and orchestral recordings from the BBC National Orchestra of Wales create a unique tune. Like the name suggests, the song has a floaty and lively quality to it, with moments of urgency and tension.

Angeline Morrison – Go Home

‘Of all The Sorrow Songs, this is the only one that is not specifically rooted in a particular time, place or individual’s story. This song is for all the people who have ever been made to feel unwelcome in the place they have chosen to call home.’ Angeline Morrison

The Sorrow Songs: Folk Songs of Black British Experience is an amazing album that turns the (previously) unsung stories of black ancestors living in the UK into traditional folk songs. Angeline Morrison’s deeply beautiful voice combined with the melancholic, brooding tone of this song portrays both past and current experiences of prejudice.

The Rheingans Sisters – The Yellow of the Flowers

For a happier and more uplifting folk tune, The Yellow of the Flowers by The Rheingans Sisters is a good pick. It opens with a beautiful fiddle melody and progress to uplifting vocals. This song has a warm, reminiscent and nostalgic quality with mentions of school and childhood in the lyrics. Hearing this gorgeous folk music makes me excited to hear the sisters’ 5th studio album!

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Welsh National Opera Orchestra – Josef Strauss Delirien (Delirium) Waltz

With an opening full of dramatic suspense that turns to a lighter mood once the waltz is introduced, Strauss’ Delirien Waltz will bring excitement to the new year with Welsh National Opera’s Performance of this stunning piece. My favourite moment is the playful yet graceful flute solo towards the beginning that segues perfectly into a grandiose tutti orchestra.

Natalie Clein – Brahms: Cello Sonata No. 1 in E Minor, Op. 38: I. Allegro non troppo

I was hard pressed to not include one of Brahms’ most beautiful sonatas. This expressive yet moody, haunting yet romantic piece is captured by the richness of Natalie Clein’s playing.