Today, Southampton Music Hub launches “Black Lives Matter: Songwriter Sessions” — a new ebook resource featuring performances and interviews with Sheldon Hamilton McKenzie and Sal Resco Chitulu.
Through their music, and in conversation, these two talented local artists share their music and their stories: helping us to better understand where their music comes from.
Southampton and Isle of Wight Music Hubs are launching version 4.0 of the Synthesis Video Guide resources, designed to help young electronic musicians build new composition skills, inspired by some incredible musicians.
Building on videos about looping (with Ricky Tart), ragas and scales (with Dr Pooja Angra), and arranging (with Em Johnson), this updated version adds resources about mixing, bass lines and chords.
Matt Brombley, Project Manager for the Synthesis Project, says:
”Using digital resources allows for young musicians to choose their own adventure through the world of electronic music composition. With these new videos, we’re excited to make that world a little bigger.”
The Synthesis Project is funded by Youth Music. Find out more about the project.
Over the past few days the team have spent time reflecting on how we can better support BAME musicians in our city. We continue to listen and learn. We also want to act now.
So, today, we launch a new, paid commission for BAME musicians in Southampton.
Southampton Music Hub is looking for BAME musicians, performers and producers who:
Live or study in Southampton
Are 18+
Perform or record their own original material
We’re looking to commission them to:
Record a performance (audio or video, 3–4 minutes) of a self-composed piece of music
Participate in a recorded, one-hour zoom conversation about their music
Genre and style are open, and musical and lyrical content should be appropriate for audiences of all ages.
The recordings will form a digital resource pack for schools and the wider community that will be made freely available on the Southampton Music Hub website.
Fee: £200 for individuals, £300 for duo or group performers
We are looking to commission 3-5 musicians in this first round, and hope to be able to expand the scheme in future.
Expressions of interest for this round close at 12noon on Tuesday 30 June 2020.
The brief is also available to download from the Synthesis Page
Southampton Music Hub has new sets of resources to support music-making and learning at home and in schools this week.
A weekly newsletter for instrumental musicians, to go alongside online music lessons, and instrument specific resources being sent directly by instrumental teachers.
A weekly newsletter for those missing out on classroom music sessions.
Resources for making use of iPad and other digital apps, including video guides from expert musicians on how to write your own songs.
This week, the first of ten weekly sessions for First Access musicians is heading out to schools and families that are missing out on their Soundbites and In2Music lessons. Learning music from across the world, over ten weeks, young music-makers will use their voices and any percussion they can get their hands on — or just their hands — to explore melody and rhythm.
Think your school or family should be taking part? Get in touch
The Synthesis Project has been working with young electronic musicians across Southampton and the Isle of Wight this year, and, as we all approach the end of the Spring Term, it is a great time to share some recordings and reflect on their achievements.
The first two pieces were inspired by the Mayflower 400 commemorations. The first is an original composition by Callum, and the second, a remix of ‘Symphony 400’ by Keiran. Both pieces were played at the Mayflower Theatre in March.
The next piece comes from a new iPad band based at Hunnyhill. The group is a Friday afternoon activity in the ‘Rainbow Room’: a teaching space to meet the needs of children and young people with social emotional and mental health needs (SEMH).
In January, the band set themselves the target of getting 100 new fans before Easter. To meet this ambitious goal, they worked together to create a brand new piece of music together that they would play to the whole school in assembly.
Sadly, school was closed before they had a chance to play their music for their friends and classmates — but their recording is here for you all to listen to, and perhaps they can count you as a new fan?
The Synthesis Project has been funded by Youth Music.
The new year has started with two news pieces for Southampton Music Hub:
The Daily Echo have written about the hub’s Mayflower 400 journey, with 1,000 residents taking part in workshops and events leading up to two epic celebration events at Mayflower Theatre on 5 and 6 March 2020.
Solent University have written about the Synthesis project session at November’s Music Mark conference.
As part of Southampton Music Hub’s Youth Music funded Synthesis Project, a group of 12 young electronic musicians from year six at Kanes Hill school have spent the past ten weeks in an iPad club: working together to create their own, new pieces of music, and developing their team work skills along the way.
On Wednesday 26 June, they shared a debut performance of their exciting and unique musical creation with the education teams at Southampton City Council. Performing at Solent University’s Palmerston Theatre, the group amazed and delighted the audience with their brand new piece of music, all created and performed using iPads.
Matt Brombley, Projects and Partnerships Manager for Southampton Music Hub, says:
“The young musicians did an incredible job, showing all the teams at the education conference that music is a powerful tool for helping us overcome the challenges we face in life. At the start their ten weeks together, there was a huge unknown for everyone — participants and music leaders alike — but by working together towards a shared goal, inspired by creating great music, they faced up to many challenges, and in doing so, both created an incredible performance and learnt important life skills for the future.”
In a blog post titled “Developing self-efficacy and collaboration in iPad Bands: a reflection on the first twelve weeks of the Synthesis Project“ on the Youth Music Network, Matt Brombley, Synthesis Project Manager, writes:
In September 2018, Southampton and Isle of Wight Music Hubs launched the Synthesis Project: a Youth Music funded project to help young electronic musicians overcome the challenges they face in life by making music together in iPad clubs, bands and orchestras. In the first twelve weeks of the project, 20 participants have taken part in over 50 hours of electronic music-making.
The band sessions have seen a number of emerging themes — many of which have challenged the whole team to reconsider their preconceptions of what a music-making session can be — but there are two key pairings of musical and personal development which have had a profound effect on both participants, and session leaders:
1. Self-expression and self-efficacy2. Composition and collaboration
September and October saw the launch of two new iPad bands, kick starting the first stage of the Southampton and Isle of Wight Music Hub’s Synthesis Project.
Taking place at Vermont School and Oasis Academy Mayfield, the two new bands are made up of young electronic musicians, invited by their schools to be part of this exciting new opportunity.
The two iPad bands are part of three year project, which has been funded by a £100,000 grant from Youth Music, and match funded with £10,000 from Southampton City Council. Starting in October, new iPad bands will be starting on the Isle of Wight, and, over the next three years, they will be joined by new iPad clubs and orchestras across the region.
Matt Brombley, Projects and Partnerships Manager for Southampton and IOW Music Hubs, says:
”It’s only been a few weeks, but already the Synthesis bands are creating some incredible sounds. Chosen for their interest and passion for electronic music, the young musicians involved are already starting to learn new music-making skills, and pull together in to tight-knit teams. The whole team can’t wait to see, and share, what they create over the coming months.”
Participants in a music technology workshop collaborating on a piece of music together
Southampton and Isle of Wight Music Hubs are launching an exciting three-year project to help young electronic musicians to compose and perform music. Following a £100,000 grant from Youth Music, match funded by £10,000 from Southampton City Council, the Synthesis project launches in September 2018 with electronic music clubs, bands and orchestras across Southampton and the Isle of Wight.
Working with schools and partnership organisations from across both music hubs, the project will help children and young people, particularly those facing challenging circumstances in their lives, to make music using iPads and other music technology. By developing their musical talents, the young musicians taking part will also develop the vital confidence and teamwork skills that will help them face and overcome the challenges they may face in their lives.
The project will be supported by professional musicians, from across a wide range of genres and backgrounds, who will help create video and digital resources that explain and demystify the songwriting process: exploring how to make music that blends musical genres, mixes musical cultures and brings together diverse communities.
Matt Brombley, Project Manager at Southampton and Isle of Wight Music Hubs, says:
“Technology is all around us: even the smartphone in your pocket can open up exciting new worlds for making-music. It is easy to think of this technology as being anti-social — we’re all familiar with the image of people hunched over their smartphones, ignoring the world around them — but what makes this project so exciting, is that it will give young electronic musicians the chance to collaborate in new clubs, bands and orchestras across the region, looking up and out from their screens, and to make and share music together. Inspired by world-class musicians, and supported by an amazing team of music leaders and teacher, these young musicians will not only learn new musical skills, but they will also develop the life-changing skills needed to work, and succeed, as part of a team.”
