Black Lives Matter international collaboration

We are proud to present these new pieces created as part of an international collaboration between the Irene Taylor Trust and Civic Orchestra of Chicago to explore themes around the Black Lives Matter movement.

 

In response to not being able to work together in person, ITT and our partners in Chicago devised an ambitious online project, utilising the skills of 23 people including the ITT project team, young musicians from the Civic Orchestra of Chicago and a number of lyricists and vocalists who have benefitted from ITT’s prison and community programmes. The driving force behind the project was the desire to respond in a creative way to the events surrounding the Black Lives Matter movement, and to create a set of 6 new songs focusing on past events, the present day and our hopes for the future. Groups met online to devise musical and lyrical ideas and structures, worked offline to create and record their individual parts and then came back together online to hone the ideas and shape each song into its final form. The result was 6 very different but extraordinary songs, all beautifully crafted and unique in content.

The project was supported by

The Leche Trust 

Charles Hayward Foundation