Past Projects

A dynamic programme of music was presented, reflecting creatively on the power of the planet to restore in face of climate change. Featuring music for Korean and Western Flutes, kora, cello and percussion, the repertoire ranged from Debussy and Bach to new composition, improvisation, and music from South Korea and West Africa. It also included a collaboration between the musicians and local storytellers from Finchley. Together they offered a creative demonstration of the power of the planet to restore in face of climate change, if only we allow it.

This concert celebrated creativity and was the result of a close collaboration between four acclaimed musicians and four astounding writers. Together they explored what it means to find your voice after it has been lost. The programme took audiences on an exciting 70-minute journey of solos and ensemble improvisations led by each of the musicians, exploring wide-ranging influences from the West African Griot tradition, Punjabi music from India, Western European classical music and folk music from Europe and the Middle East. Write to Life’s writers, who met as members of Freedom from Torture’s unique writing and performance group, add their lived experience on the journey from an unspeakable past to new lives, and new voices, here in Britain.

In Where will I be?, leading musicians collaborated with participants from Single Homeless Project to present a vividly imagined concert of classical, folk and world music interspersed with oral storytelling drawing on myth and legend. In the inspiring settings of Swiss Cottage Library and the Foundling Museum, audiences were taken on a creative voyage, exploring the common human need to have a home.

Alongside a programme of Bach, Weir, Bowie, Bhamra, Jegede, folk music from across the world and improvisation, the musicians premiered a new work by composer and jazz bassist Misha Mullov-Abbado, commissioned by NW Live Arts with support from the RVW Trust.

Participants from Single Homeless Project took part in storytelling workshops in the lead up to the concert, with facilitator Eileen Egerton and the musicians. The creative results of these workshops – presented in the concert – explored the human experience and personal meaning of being homeless and finding a pathway, not simply back but forward, to a new place of hope.

A concert exploring identity and our sense of place in the world. This imaginative programme features an unusual combination of instruments performing contemporary music to familiar and less familiar classical music, middle eastern music as well as improvisations and a new piece for this unique ensemble. Interwoven with the music are readings from Write to Life, the acclaimed writing and performance group from Freedom from Torture. Together with the musicians they celebrate the distinctive nature of each individual contribution, and the special magic that happens when many traditions come together.

The programme included early music by Dowland, Scarlatti and Lully, solo piano works by Satie and Bach alongside contemporary works by Birtwistle, Fasil Say, Ligeti and Attab Haddad and inspiring improvisations.

The pandemic was very challenging in many ways, yet we were amazed by the wonderful resilience and creativity of our community. We invited you to dig out your crayons, paints and cameras, and inspire us with your own artistic creations when we asked for creative responses to the theme of ‘belonging’. We were overwhelmed with the drawings, paintings and photos sent to us showing what ‘belonging’ means to you.

During lockdown, we had a heightened sense of our place in the world; how we connect to our family, friends, strangers, our home and the world around us. #AsYouSeeIt gave everyone a voice for their creativity and to our sense of belonging. We welcomed artwork from all ages.

We welcomed back Kuljit Bhamra MBE (Tabla) and the Alkyona String Quartet who performed our first ever concert in November 2018. Exploring the idea of renewal of mind, spirit and body in a dynamic mix of music from Europe, India and South America they are joined by legendary percussionist Andres Ticino and video artists from the Creative Community Workshop.

The programme explored a vision of renewal expressed in quartets by Mozart, Ravel and Bartok as well as a new work for string quartet and percussion by Kuljit Bhamra and Caroline Heslop. Also featuring inspiring improvisations by Andres Ticino and Kuljit Bhamra, music for solo viola by Maconchy and more, the theme of the evening was enhanced further by new video art created by members of the community workshop led by artist, Antonia Attwood.

The #AsYouSayIt project started in June 2020, when NW Live Arts asked the general public to send in words that evoke ‘place’ for them. NW Live Arts collated all the words submitted and transformed them into a Word Cloud. 

Then in August 2020, an open call was held for composers, improvisers and musicians of all kinds to submit sound files as a creative musical response to one or more of the words in this word cloud. NW Live Arts then commissioned two artists to create a sound and text animation work. Neil Luck mixed the sound submissions and Toby Elwes created the animation using the words from the Word Cloud.