On Sunday 7 February 2021, at 2pm, Art Asia hosts an online celebration of the community art project, ‘Belonging’.

This free event will feature stories, poems, and the debut of a brand performance of ‘Naya Rasta — Sailing Towards a New Horizon’: a digital collaboration made up of video performances from musicians across the city. Included among the contributions will be iPad performances from Matt Brombley, who lead’s the music hub’s technology provision.

Matt Brombley says:
”Even though recorded alone at home, this was such an exciting project to take part in. I can’t wait to hear the ways other performers have, from their homes, re-imagined and been inspired by the music and the stories Art Asia have shared. To be able to be a part of something with others, to work on something together even though we are apart, is so wonderful.”

Art Asia is delighted to offer online classes in Bollywood, Tabla, Singing, Harmoinum and Bharatnatyam. All classes are run by highly experienced tutors who are international performers in their respective field.

Art Asia are offering four creative ways to explore the Mayflower story:

“The Mayflower Story began with the epic voyage of the pilgrims, in search of the New World and finding their site of belonging. It is a story of persecution, hope and challenges they encounters as they negotiated a new regrouping of communities to call it home. The Mayflower story has a double edge — the pilgrim finding a new home but at the same time displacing the indigenous people and paving the way for colonialism. It is important to recognise this. At a time when we are living through some extraordinary times, not only because of the pandemic but because of inequalities and entrenched racism in society ‘Belonging’ attempts to bring the lives and stories of the new settlers in Southampton.

Art Asia are offering creative responses, including singing, storytelling and craft, and are inviting Southampton’s communities to respond.

On Saturday 7 December, at 11.30am–12.30pm and 2–3pm, John Hansard Gallery will host family-friendly sound and visual performances.

((( On Pa ))), meaning sound wave in Japanese, is the collaboration of musician and inventor ICHI and modern day English folk artist, Rachael Dadd. Their performance as ((( On Pa ))) is a joyful and explorative celebration of sounds from our everyday lives fused with visuals to match. 

Suitable for children aged 6-10. The cost of entry is £5 per child (2 children: 1 adult goes free).

London Sinfonietta, in collaboration with Turner Sims and Southampton Music Hub took hundreds of children on a journey into the world of minimalism. An interactive schools concert gave children the opportunity to see music played on toy pianos and microphones. The children composed music for the professional musicians to play and were given insight into the sounds, ideas and concepts that create this iconic style of music.

This was followed by a performance of Terry Rileys 'In C' by members of several Southampton Music Hub ensembles following a series of workshops and rehearsals with London Sinfonietta Musicians.

The day culminated with a community concert that introduced the audience to the world of minimalism

Kevin Appleby, Manager of Turner Sims, says:
"It's always special to see the artists of tomorrow performing on the Turner Sims stage. we have enjoyed a fantastic day of collaboration, inspiration and aspiration - bringing minimalism to life."

As Southampton commemorates 400 years since the Mayflower’s world-changing journey, Southampton Music Trust will support Southampton Music Hub to take hundreds of children learning a musical instrument for the first time on a life-changing musical journey. 

In July, young musicians from across the city's primary schools will blast onto the Central Hall stage to create brand new music in The Big Mayflower Jam! The Jam will tell the stories of the composers’ own journeys, exploring the ideas of belonging to a community and building a new future together.

This amazing first experience of performing on stage will be made even more special as the young people will be playing alongside professional musicians from the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra (BSO)! The BSO will lead hundreds of young musicians as they play, listen, improvise, compose, and perform together, inspire each other’s musicianship, and build new connections and friends across the city.

But to give the city’s young people this amazing experience, Southampton Music Trust need your help. They want to make sure we can give life-changing music to children across the city, without it requiring any one person to give a life-changing amount of money. So, in partnership with Arts Council England and Spacehive’s Our Music Crowd project, they have launched a special crowdfunding campaign to harness the power of our community and bring together lots of small gifts to reach our life-changing target. 

The Big Mayflower Jam will give hundreds of young musicians a hugely inspirational musical experience, showcase their music, and demonstrate its importance: both to them as young people and to the city. Group music making is at the core of the project – activity proven to boost social bonding by helping participants identify collective identities and experiences, and as a result feel accepted. The Big Mayflower Jam will affirm the value of young musicians’ creative ambitions, improve their social and emotional stability, and help bring our communities together.

Please help make your community a better place and give our young people this amazing experience by making your donation at www.spacehive.com/bigmayflowerjam. Sharing is caring – if you share that you have supported this project on your own social media pages, it can help generate an average of £5 more in donations!

On Friday 24 May — the final day of last half term — Southampton Music Services Staff and Southampton Music Hub partners came together for a Mental Health Awareness Training morning led by experienced mental health nurse and trainer Sonia Piper. The training gave music teachers and hub partners an introduction to the mental health challenges that young musicians in the city may be facing — including anxiety, depression and self harm — and began to explore ways that music-making can be used to help improve wellbeing for all.

Matt Brombley, Projects and Partnerships Manager for Southampton Music Hub, says:
”This training was a brilliant next step in achieving the hub’s core mission of using music to improve the health and wellbeing of the children, young people and communities of Southampton. It was great to be joined by hub partners — including Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, Chinese Arts, Southampton City Council, SSMA, Sound Pop Academy and SoCo — who are all working together to bring the life-changing power of music to every child in the city.”

On Thursday 24 January pulls from across Southampton, Portsmouth, Isle of Wight and Hampshire came together at Portsmouth Guildhall for the annual school’s concert from Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra (BSO).

The audience were entertained by music about celebration: commemorating the recent 125th anniversary for the BSO. The audience then became the performers and joined the BSO to sing the songs ‘Musical Fireworks’, written by James Redwood, and ‘Ode to Joy’, composed by Beethoven.

Kath Page, Manager for Southampton and Isle of Wight Music Hubs, says:
“This afternoon's concert was a wonderful opportunity for children to see and appreciate a full sized symphony orchestra and understand that music comes to life when you see it live. The interactive concert from BSO gave children the opportunity to really use their imagination and see instruments that they had never seen before.”

Helen Mead, Music Teacher at Shirley Warren School, says:
“The concert was a fantastic opportunity for over 60 pupils from our school to experience live orchestral music. They were engaged and excited throughout. The year 3 pupils are walking round school singing the Ode to Joy afterward.”

The BSO School’s Concert is one of many inspiring and inclusive live music experiences available to Southampton Schools on the Stadium Tour.

From 5.30–6pm this evening — Wednesday 19 December — singers from Bitterne Park School filled Southampton High Street with the sounds of Christmas music, sharing festive feelings with shoppers and families visiting the city centre in the final week before Christmas.

Matt Brombley, Projects and Partnerships Manager for Southampton Music Hub, says:
“Bitterne Park School did themselves proud this evening: sharing their musical talents with the city in a show of festive goodwill. It has been a pleasure to work with Go Southampton and Southampton Music Trust to make this series of performances happen this year — long may the partnership continue!”

In January 2019, a brand new folk string group launches: the FolkActive Youth Ensemble. The group is for intermediate (grade 3+) violin, viola, cello and double-bass players, and will be led by Chris Nichols of Threepenny Bit.

Music will be leant by ear and then used to explore the wider world of folk music. There will be a book for participants to take home, as well as handouts with extra music covered too.

Sessions will run on once a month, on Sundays, from 10am-1pm, at Richard Taunton Sixth Form College, starting on Sunday 13 January 2019. The cost is just £15 per term.

For half an hour this evening — Monday 10 December — St Johns School choir filled Southampton City centre with the beautiful sounds of singing, bringing festive feelings to a busy crowd of parents, shoppers and onlookers. The street concert is the first of five organised in collaboration with Go Southampton and Southampton Music Trust, and will see four city centre spaces play host to music from schools and other young musicians in the lead up to Christmas.

From 5.30-6pm, 30 young singers performed a delightful mix of festive classics, carols and family favourites.

Matt Brombley, Projects and Partnerships Manager for Southampton Music Hub, says:
“It is a pleasure to work with Go Southampton on this project. Music is such a magical part of the Christmas season, and this is a great way for young musicians to share their talents with the city.”

Our SHREKtastic new trailer is here and we're coming to a swamp near you! https://shrekthemusical.co.uk/

Thursday 6 December was the first event in the year long collaboration programme between the Mayflower Theatre and Southampton Music Hub. Pupils and teachers from across Southampton took part in music and drama workshops, getting to know the characters and themes of the show before watching the matinee performance.

Kath Page, Manager for Southampton Music Hub, says:
“The musical theatre days are one of the highlights of our hub calendar. Being able to bring children into the theatre to both perform and be performed to is magical and they really feel involved having learnt a song from the show. The Mayflower support in making the theatre accessible to these young people is invaluable.”

Shrek will be at the Mayflower until 8th December.

Last night, on Tuesday 201 November, Billionaire Boy — a brand new, hilarious, family-friendly, musical — opened at Nuffield Southampton Theatres (NST).

The show, produced by NST in association with Belgrade Theatre Coventry, is based on David Walliams’ best-selling book of the same name, and has been adapted by Jon Brittain, and features music by Miranda Cooper and Nick Coler: the team responsible for huge hits for Girls Aloud, the Sugababes and Kylie.

The busy crowd for opening night included teachers and staff from across Southampton school — giving them a chance to see the show ahead of bringing their pupils to see the show later this term — and members of Southampton Music Hub’s vocal team, who will be working in partnership with NST to teach the schools how to sing one of the new songs from this exciting new musical production.

Matt Brombley, Projects and Partnerships Manager for Southampton Music Hub, says:
“NST are continuing to build a phenomenal reputation for developing exciting new theatre programming. They bring incredible expertise to the Southampton Music Hub partnership, along with a strong determination to share their inspiring and engaging theatre experiences with the whole city. It is a pleasure to work with them on bringing the hilarious — and just a little bit naughty — Billionaire Boy story to schools in the city. And, it’s not every day you get to be involved in a project that includes purple bottoms…”

Catch Billionaire Boy at NST City, running until Sunday 6 January.

Members os Southampton’s Youth Brass Bands performing ahead of the debut flight of Southampton’s Flying Santa

On Thursday 16 November, across Southampton City Centre, people gathered to start the countdown to Christmas. In an event organised by Go Southampton, the evening’s entertainment included a performance from Southampton Music Hub’s Brass Bands, the debut of a brand new song from Billionaire Boy (a brand new musical coming to Nuffield Southampton Theatres (NST) next week), the turning on of the Christmas lights, and the debut flight of Southampton’s Flying Santa.

Performance of a new song from the new NST Musical, Billionaire Boy

Well done SYBB. You were the highlight at the turning on of the Christmas lights in Southampton. @MusicHubSouth pic.twitter.com/QVRVJDXh8z

— Jane Watkins (@janewatkins) November 15, 2018

Image courtesy of ABC Concerts

Following on from the fantastic Easter Bunny Hop in spring, a jazz-filled Christmas special comes to Turner Sims. Jingle Bell Jazz is ready to delight families on Sunday 16 December at 11am and 3pm.

ABC Concerts will get their audience into the festive spirit with everybody’s favourite Christmas melodies played by the Jingle Bell Jazz Band. Audiences can don their Santa hats and reindeer antlers and dance, wriggle, clap, cheer and sing their way through this interactive and fun concert for all the family.

Presented by ABC Concerts in association with Turner Sims this show is suitable for ages 2-5, but all are ages welcome.

Southampton based Sound Pop Academy have launched its singing academy at two locations in its hometown of Southampton for young singers and aspiring performers.

Directors, Mike Evans and Dan Cooper come with a vast amount of experience from the live performance and music industry.

Mike Evans said: “We wanted to create a contemporary, modern and fresh approach to music learning, giving our members opportunities to perform at incredible theatre shows, outdoor events and festivals. There’s nothing out there like it.”

Following the success of their bespoke three day summer workshop in August, Sound Pop Academy have just launched their brand new website which comes with an online members area, where members can view their rehearsal and performance calendar, listen to their harmony parts and take advantage of help and guides whilst at home.

Dan Cooper, who also runs Southampton and Bournemouth based Love Soul Choir said: “Our focus will be on providing first class tuition to our members. Harmony skill, group singing, slick choreography and loads of performance and social opportunities is something we’re really excited about.”

Mike added: “We believe that everybody should be able to access music and high quality music sessions at an affordable price. We’re so excited to be able to offer a Sound Pop Academy membership at just £25.00 per month. No expensive term fees. No expensive weekly classes. No expensive tuition”.

Academies will run at the d.@rt Centre, Wildern Lane from Tuesday 25 September and Richard Taunton Sixth Form College, Hill Lane from Thursday 26 September.

Sound Pop Academy are a hub partner of Southampton Music Hub, and delivered school-based workshops last year, inspiring young singers through pop music repertoire.