Community and Education Assistant Hannah Taylor writes about RPO resound’s latest project with the Ismaili Community Ensemble.
This year’s education projects have got off to a flying start. In our first project of 2012, regular RPO resound partners, the Ismaili Community Ensemble (ICE), under the leadership of Paul Griffiths have been involved in not one but two separate collaborations!
Firstly, Composer Niraj Chag shared one of his compositions, called Kanya, with ICE. With the help of Paul and the RPO resound musicians, the ensemble arranged and adapted the piece to suit their different strengths and ideas.
Secondly, the ensemble engaged in a series of visits to the Orpheus Centre – an organisation dedicated to providing disabled over 18s with performing arts opportunities and preparing them for future responsibilities. RPO resound musicians and ICE members worked together with students at Orpheus and Paul to create a fantastic new piece that brought together musical ideas from everyone involved.
Ismaili Community Ensemble and Orpheus Centre musicians
Of course there was time for ICE to work on their own material too. Taking London’s multiculturalism as a starting point in the very first session, suggestions were flying from every corner of the room as the ensemble brainstormed some ideas by listing the sorts of sounds one hears when travelling through different areas of London. Once rehearsals got underway, the creation of music progressed organically and continually until the very end.
The culmination of the project took place on Saturday 28th January at Cadogan Hall, featuring the music of each of the different partners in this busy term of work. Though the members of Orpheus were not able to be with us on the day, they were certainly there in spirit when ICE performed their composition in its entirety. All the pieces went down a storm and the ensemble received a standing ovation from the audience, with the performers eagerly playing an encore: a carnival-style piece that gradually increases in speed until the final two bars are exploding with excitement.
We look forward to further opportunities to collaborate with all these different groups in future months.
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