HUNDREDS of children are taking part in a whole week of musical masterclasses at one of the region’s top arts centres.

About 1,500 pupils from more than 40 primary, middle, secondary and special schools across Suffolk will be finding their voices during the special sessions at Snape Maltings.

A Celebration of Schools’ Music 2011 is the largest school music festival of its kind in the UK and runs until Saturday.

It is the result of a unique and productive partnership between Aldeburgh Music and Suffolk County Council and has been taking place every year since 1987.

Yesterday, youngsters from Reydon primary in Southwold, St Mary’s Catholic in Ipswich, Cedars Park primary in Stowmarket and Rougham primary in Bury St Edmunds were taking part.

Also at Snape were children representing St Louis Catholic Middle School in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk One in Ipswich and Thomas Wolsey and Thurleston High schools.

At the end of the day all the pupils gathered for a finale performance of a specially commissioned piece from Jason Singh and Bex Mather.

An Aldeburgh Music spokesman said: “In preparation for the week Aldeburgh Music provided all Suffolk maintained schools with a poster exploring various creative starting points for composition and performance-based classroom activity, all relating to this year’s theme of Styles, Genres, Traditions.

“Celebration 2011 sees more new schools than ever taking part in this six-day celebration of Suffolk schools’ music.

“The programmes being performed during the week reflect the wealth of musical talent of young people in Suffolk and display a vivid array of different types of music making.”

n For further coverage see the EADT all week and visit www.eadt.co.uk for full web galleries.

elliot.furniss@eadt.co.uk