DCI students work with bands from Berklee College of Music

Sleeping Lion, the young indie pop band from Berklee College of Music, opened the annual Dulwich College International Diversity series. In October the duo - Nate Flaks and Noah Longworth McGuire -  facilitated workshops and performed at Dulwich College Beijing, Dulwich International High School Suzhou, Dulwich College Suzhou and Dulwich College Shanghai.

The band worked with music students in the schools, speaking to students about the processes involved in creating electronic music and comparing this with writing songs in a band. They drew upon their own experience of song writing when based in different countries. The first Sleeping Lion songs were written and produced via Skype while Nate was living in Dobbs Ferry in New York and Noah was living in Rome.

Sleeping Lion used the workshops to demonstrate how electronic music can be performed. The band performed songs and then deconstructed them to offer students a better understanding of the different elements involved in a live performance. The group is always experimenting and took advantage of the instruments on hand at Dulwich College Suzhou, incorporating Taiko drums into their performance for the first time.

Kris K in Year 7 from DCB said, “I was really excited to work on our song with Sleeping Lion. I think they brought us closer together as a band. They were really nice, even when they pointed out mistakes and they were very positive when we tried to make them better. I really enjoyed working with them.”

Sleeping Lion are the fourth group from Berklee College of Music to visit the Dulwich College International network as part of the annual Diversity series. The band was very well received by the schools and has had a fantastic time exploring China and working with students. Matthew Nicholl, Associate Vice President of Global Initiatives, travelled with Sleeping Lion and met with a number of the Dulwich College International Heads of Music to discuss the creation of a Memorandum of Understanding between Dulwich College International and Berklee College of Music. With these discussions underway, the Dulwich family of schools should be seeing more musicians from Berklee College of Music working with our students in the coming years.

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