Live Music Now are delighted to welcome 40 new musicians to the South East region, making up eleven ensembles and nine soloists. These are the first musicians to join the region since before the 2020 lockdowns and we are delighted to welcome so many talented performers.
Amongst the cohort are a sax quartet, wind trio, baroque ensemble, three harpists, two singer-songwriters, a string quartet, two accordions, a classical guitar and lutenist, and four vocalists each accompanied by either piano/guitar or looping their own voice. A full list of new performers is at the end of this article.
We’re delighted to welcome ensemble Vox Trio and accordionist Charles Kieny, who are transfering to Live Music Now UK from our sister organisations Live Music Now Scotland and Live Music Now France.
We are also delighted to welcome three more guest musicians joining from the Inner Vision Orchestra and the Baluji Music Foundation. You can read more about the partnership here: https://www.livemusicnow.org.uk/innversionpartnership/
The new musicians attended one of five recruitment workshops in London last November, led by John Webb and supported by current Live Music Now musicians and alumni. Since then, each soloist and ensemble has received an introductory session followed by training in two specialisms, from instructors John Webb, Julian West and Ros Hawley. The sessions have given them new skills to enhance their performances and understand the environments and participants that Live Music Now musicians work with.
The musicians are now delivering their first participatory concerts in a range of settings with partners across London and surrounding counties.
‘From harpsichordist to soul/trip hop looper, we’re really excited to be welcoming such a wide range of incredible musicians to the South East team after a very competitive musician recruitment process. We’re looking forward to exposing the communities that we work with to such high quality musicianship.
We’ll be supporting them with mentoring and training this year to increase their skills, experience and confidence of engaging Live Music Now’s audiences in special schools, health, care and community settings. Huge congratulations to all the musicians joining our team!’
Ruth Mulvey, Director of Live Music Now South East
Live Music Now is grateful to Arts Council England for supporting the new musicians training and mentored concerts in the community.
