FAIREST ISLE FESTIVAL

The background

Building on the Festival’s successful Recorder Extravaganza event (where 30 children were coached in recorder playing for six months and gave a performance to family members at the start of the 2024 festival - along with Masterclasses and workshops with a further 200 children), Fairest Isle Festival and Southampton and Isle of Wight Music (SIOW) are delighted to be offering Island schools the opportunity to participate again in 2026.

The idea

This project features brand new music written specifically for schoolchildren on the Island by Miriam Monaghan of Palisander (recorder quartet) to support their musical development and provide a unique opportunity for them to perform with professional musicians unlikely to visit the Island otherwise, resulting in a performance alongside Palisander supported by Fairest Isle Festival.

The songs are themed around the "Can you hear us?" initiative, part of the Creative Island's place-based partnership funding for 2026. This also connects to the IOW music hub's 'Songs of Place' strand and includes a newly-developed Blackgang Chine medley linking young people to their musicianship and to the Island's rich geography.  

SIOW will provide free learning workshops to children in four schools from wards of highest need where it is increasingly difficult for schools to offer in-house due to a lack of specialist music teachers at primary school level.  This project not only provides a fantastic performance and progression opportunity for young musicians but also supports their teachers and schools with resources and training.  The songbook and resources will also be shared digitally across the South Coast region with a reach of 2000 children across 350 schools.

Miriam Monaghan is running an online Continuous Professional Development (CPD) session for participating schools and non-specialist music teachers focused on classroom recorder teaching, addressing an identified need in IOW schools.

Performance Event (May)

Schools will work towards a massed performance event in May, coinciding with the Fairest Isle Festival weekend – featuring Palisander.

Legacy

The project aims to establish ongoing instrumental groups within schools and provide teachers with the training and resources needed to confidently deliver instrumental instruction independently in the future. The Fairest Isle branded songbook can continue to be used and will also feature in the final Songs of Place event in October 2026 in Ventnor Exchange's Big Top.

Vocal Workshops in Schools

Two festival artists, Ailsa Campbell and Sam Gilliatt, who are experienced workshop coaches, will run sessions in four schools during the festival weekend.