The Advantage of Young People From Different Musical Backgrounds Sharing the Same Stage
Mytime Active’s community music project ‘ArtsTrain’ proudly presented their fourth EFG London Jazz Festival event at Langley Park Concert Hall. This year involved a new partnership with Bromley and Bexley Music Hub. The event was held at Langely Park Concert hall and featured original music from a range of young people from different musical and social backgrounds.
The event was supported by ‘Serious’ the organisers of the EFG London jazz Festival and was held at the new state-of-the-art Langley Park Concert Hall and featuring young people from across south east and outer London. The show provided a platform for the young people from a range different musical and social backgrounds to showcase their original music.
The event showcased ArtsTrain’s an eclectic mix of music, ranging from original rap and songwriting from young people who attend our open-access sessions as well as those from our advanced ‘Academy’ programme. There was also a specially commissioned piece of music theatre and dance ‘Generation-140’ from a group of year 7 and year 8 boys from Langley Park School. All the young ArtsTrain performers were challenged to come up with work based around this year’s theme of ‘waste and consumerism’ set by our patron Soweto Kinch and they really rose to the challenge.
“What an inspiring event! It was a great opportunity to see the clear benefits of hub working in practice, with Arts Train, and the Music Education Hubs in Bromley and Bexley coming together. Fabulous music-making from young people in outer London which is clearly the place to be!” (Maria Turley - Arts Council England, Music Relationship Manager)
The 200 strong audience was further inspired by some wonderful performances from our partners; Bird College in Bexley, Bromley Youth Music Trust, and Langley Park school. The young people were inspired by virtuoso performances by our amazing professional artist practitioners Eska and MOBO award winner Soweto who also worked with young people on the development of their work for the evening.
“We are delighted to work with ArtsTrain on this concert, giving young people in outer London the opportunity to showcase their talents and hard work as part of the EFG London Jazz Festival.” (K. Duncan – Serious, Associate Director of Development & Learning)
When our Music Practitioners reviewed the event, it was clear that the young people all appreciated hearing the range of genres and artforms displayed by the other groups on the night. It was raised at our tutor consultation meeting that a number of young people who take part in our open-access music sessions had never seen a big band perform live.
“I have been doing music all of my life but this was the first event that I have ever performed alongside a live band” (K. Jones 19 – Young female rapper)
It is the feedback from this event that has shaped our 2014-15 partnership projects with Bromley and Bexley Music Hub this year.
In Bromley we are working with James Yarde to devise an original piece of collaborative music with Bromley Youth Music Trust's big band and a group of young songwriters and emcees from ArtsTrain.
In Bexley we are running a project called the Sub Urban Orchestra which is being led by Arun Gosh. The project brings young people from a range of schools and youth centres together to write and perform cross-genre, contemporary music.