The Penhill Giant in Skipton

On Wednesday 11th October, 230 primary school children filed into Skipton Town Hall to hear ‘The Penhill Giant’. Writer Sally Edwards based her text on the legend of the Wensleydale giant, and narrator Claire-Marie Seddon brought that text vividly to life with the help of Skipton Camerata conducted by Ben Crick. This was a particularly pleasurable project for me as I was writing for children, with virtually the same forces as Prokofiev’s ‘Peter and the Wolf’. I felt great relief that the piece appealed to its young audience, given their rapt attention during the performance and their warm appreciation at the end of it. I am often struck by the perceptiveness of children’s listening (John Berger noticed the same thing with their appreciation of visual art) and a few times in my life I’ve been approached by them with intelligent, probing questions about what they have heard. That my music in general appeals to kids is a considerable source of pride for me. Below is the first performance, captured on a mobile phone and Zoom recorder!