Bristol's Sound World to host live premier of lockdown singles

A live premiere of two singles produced by a charity that supported musicians during the coronavirus pandemic is to be performed in Bristol.

Sound World released album Reflections, featuring original works performed by the Bristol Ensemble, in 2021.

The tracks to be performed are The Grace of Silence by Evelyn Glennie and Sally Beamish's April.

And for the show, charity director Julian Leeks said: "We've put together a new band."

The band - also called Sound World - will make its debut on 1 October, at The Mount Without, in Bristol, where it will then have a residency.

"We already do a great deal of work in education, going into disadvantaged schools, where they don't really have much music and doing workshops to help the best young composers," said Mr Leeks.

"We decided to create a band combining a couple of really experienced, really good performers, with a few young composers, to give guidance and help them take their first steps on their professional careers.

"Most musicians have a portfolio career, doing a film score one day, contemporary music the next and maybe Bach the next; we wanted people whose sole interest was the area we're looking at and they really do play with a passion and a vibrancy."

The lockdown project started in 2020 when Covid-19 wiped-out paid working opportunities for many self-employed musicians.

At the time, Sound World said it wanted to help performers by offering paid work rather than handouts.

Composer Dame Evelyn Glennie's original piece, The Sound of Silence, was based on the feelings associated with lockdown and was recorded by Harriet Riley and Paul Israel of the Bristol Ensemble.

Due to the unique circumstances, all the musicians had to record their parts separately in their own homes, with the work knitted together by sound engineer Andy Keenan.

The world-renowned composers, who each wrote one of the album's 12 tracks, offered their work for free, with only the performers being paid, through crowdfunding and album sales.

The charity has also launched a new music club in partnership with St George's and Bristol Beacon.

"It's part education and part just fun and aims to make sense of the bewildering array of different music genres out there," said Mr Leeks.

"It can be quite daunting. No matter how much you want to be discovering new music and expanding your horizons, nobody wants to spend ages wasting time on music that's not right for them.

"The idea of the club is that it involves specially curated, personalised listening lists, concert recommendations and follow-up info on featured music and musicians."

Members of the club will get free entry to concerts as well as the chance to get directly involved with the Sound World band by attending rehearsals, voting on repertoire, and even submitting music.

A series of concerts by Sound World is planned at The Mount Without over the next year, with the next one taking place on 14 January.

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