Grand Union Orchestra and The Garden Youth Music Project in Concert
The Garden Youth Music Project led by Joanna Eden and Kevin Sporle gives a space for young people to connect with each other through music.
Following a busy and successful year, the Grand Union Orchestra has been taking a break from large-scale live events. Ongoing community projects and work with young musicians continued during this period, and we’ve been using this time for reflection and review and to make plans for 2024.
We are launching a comprehensive Spring/Summer live programme around Easter time under the banner ‘2024: The Summer of Multiculturalism’.
In the meantime, we have released a 40th Anniversary Film to remind audiences and friends of the power and diversity of our performances, and introduce them to those who may not have had the opportunity to experience them live.
Read more and download the film.
Our film-maker Daniel Olabode has also produced a fascinating documentary on the making of the film, with brief profiles of the artists involved. This short film is free to download and share here.
The driving force behind the Orchestra, composer/creative director Tony Haynes, has been suffering from a long-term serious illness, so he has stepped back from front-line roles. Instead, the Company will operate more on a collective model, focused on our core team of charismatic pioneers and a Regeneration Group of potential professional musicians.
This group reflects the heritage and instruments of our core team, who will pass on not only major global musical traditional skills, but also workshop techniques working with people of all ages and levels of experience and so on.
Besides nurturing a younger cohort of the next generation of Grand Union Orchestra musicians, it will also form the sorely-needed culturally diverse workforce of the future.
The music heard in this documentary is The Long and Narrow Road, a popular song by Âşık Veysel, member of the troubadour class of Alevi (Anatolia) spiritual or religious poet-songwriters. They share characteristics of the Sufi mystic Rumi (Persia), or Baul singers like Lalon Shah (Pakistan). Though they are all Muslim, culturally they are quite different: for Grand Union they reflect the struggle of creative artists for enlightenment.
The Garden Youth Music Project led by Joanna Eden and Kevin Sporle gives a space for young people to connect with each other through music.
The Garden Youth Music Project led by Joanna Eden and Kevin Sporle gives a space for young people to connect with each other through music.
Come join its smaller sibling, Grand Union Band, on a journey through the African diaspora, and across the Atlantic to Latin America and the Caribbean. Enjoy rhythms and music from around the world, including calypso, soca, reggae, salsa and samba. Music to move the feet and lift the heart!