A New Music Collaboration in Manchester

It was great news when we heard that Manchester Independents is willing to finance a creative collaboration between Voices Beyond, Amani Creatives and Manchester International Roots Orchestra, with a possibility of a concert at the end of the project to present the new collaborative pieces.

After an introductory zoom meeting, all the Music Directors of the groups were very excited to start working and creating together, in a way that we hadn't before. 

We met and discussed different ways of creating new pieces, and we agreed that we have two choices - improvise and develop new ideas which will become new pieces, or bring written pieces which could be further developed with the other groups. Amani Creatives and Voices Beyond went with the first idea and MIRO with the second. We had wonderful creative sessions where we explored and developed ideas into 3 new and exciting pieces. 

We had the opportunity to present the new work in December 2021 at the 442 Community Hub in Longsight and it marked the end of Manchester Independents initiative but the start of a new way of making musical performances for us. 

The new music was well received by audiences and we fel  that the new work was exciting, challenging and suggesting a new mancunion sound.

It will be amazing if we could further explore this way of creating and perhaps find a way to blend the musical ideas and styles coming from the 3 groups in a deeper and more organic way, resulting in a truly new mancunion sound and style.

 

Michael Cretu, MD of MIRO