EDUCATION
/// Oliver’s passion for music education, outreach and leadership has seen him hold major roles in the sector.
Artistic Director for ten years at Children’s Classic Concerts, one of the UK’s largest and most successful symphonic concert series for children and their families, Oliver was a key part of the team which oversaw the transition into their flourishing partnership with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, as well as expanding their reach across Scotland.
He was also a visiting professor at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, a role he held for five years. His expertise in the areas of solo percussion and chamber music have led to him being an in-demand mentor, and he has worked with some of the UK’s most promising young percussionists, individually as well as in conservatoire masterclasses.
Oliver has worked on projects for organisations including Scottish Chamber Orchestra, London Sinfonietta, Wigmore Hall, Philharmonia Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, Britten Sinfonia and more.
Throughout his career, he has made outreach and education work a priority and has led literally thousands of workshops around the UK, including schools, community groups and young offender centres.
"Music should not be a luxury but an essential part of every child’s education, for it is a universal language that we all speak, even if we do not know that we do."
Oliver Cox
/// WE CAN FLY
We Can Fly first began as a song with percussion, created for two Children’s Classic Concerts performances celebrating the Glasgow Commonwealth Games in 2014.
Since then it has taken flight, with performances around the world.
Most significantly, in 2018 it was brought to life in a complex multi-media project involving Children’s Classic Concerts, Drake Music Scotland, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, National Youth Choir of Scotland.
In this project we worked with 8 Additional Support Needs (ASN) schools across Glasgow and Edinburgh, and created video and audio resources which were then brought into two live performances in Scotland’s two largest concert halls, Usher Hall Edinburgh and Royal Concert Hall Glasgow. Some of the school children from the workshops performed live on stage, where we performed with film, live symphony orchestra and 100 piece choir.
/// WE CAN FLY - 2014
/// WE CAN FLY - 2018
Audio, piano score, percussion parts and even full orchestral score for We Can Fly are available for puchase.
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/// RENFREWSHIRE SPACE PROJECT
A project involving 6 primary schools in Renfrewshire in South Western Scotland. We worked with the children for 6 weeks around the key areas of space, storytelling and composition.
The aim was to foster creativity and wonder after the deeply challenging years of the pandemic.
The children formed small groups and picked an area of space / the solar system to focus on, created a narrative and then scored it using voice, percussion and synthesisers.
Three of our final short pieces shared below…
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/// GIGHA PROJECT
We spent a week on the tiny island of Gigha off the West coast of Scotland, delivering a project for the Scottish Chamber Orchestra.
Working with the entire primary school of 13 children, we created a selection of short compositions inspired by the island itself, and the children’s favourite places there. This time we worked with percussion, voice and the awesome clarinet skills of Jean Johnson.
Two of our short compositions are shared below.
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/// THE BIG BANG PROJECT
A post-lockdown project, this took place in Glasgow schools in 2021 and 2022. Working with 10 schools, we created music using African drums and Brazilian samba instruments that we had bought for the schools, and performed our pieces in a series of online and in-person concerts.
/// O DRUMMING
/// HAPPY
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"Their rapport with the audience was instantaneous, their enthusiasm infectious … Oliver’s We Can Fly was even more memorable."
Dundee Courier
OTHER PROJECTS
/// COMPOSITION
/// PERCUSSION
/// COLLABORATION