Music creator Finn McLean talks about their collaboration with the Glasgow Community Concert Band as part of Adopt a Music Creator 2024. ...
Edgar Divver recounts his first month working with Bedfordshire Woodwind Academy Flute Ensemble (BWAFE) as part of their Adopt a Music Creator 2022 collaboration.
As the title suggests, it’s been a rapid start to my life on this year’s Adopt a Music Creator scheme! Since starting with the launch event at the end of January, run successfully in a ‘hybrid’ style with half of us in person and the other half online, it has been a non-stop month. I met my group, the Bedfordshire Woodwind Academy Flute Ensemble, virtually at the launch event, and we had an exciting discussion to find out more about each other, gauge each other’s motivations for the project and, importantly, plan the initial logistics for me to meet the full group.
Planning has already been incredibly important to enable the project to work well, particularly as I live near Manchester - getting to Bedfordshire in person requires good advance scheduling! Thankfully, my mentor lives much closer, enabling me to join a rehearsal online and introduce myself to the group, with my mentor being there in person. This was a lovely initial introduction to the ensemble and it was fantastic to see a rehearsal in action, allowing me a chance to hear the ensemble rehearse and see how they operate, which worked well even though I wasn’t actually there!
'This was a lovely initial introduction to the ensemble and it was fantastic to see a rehearsal in action, allowing me a chance to hear the ensemble rehearse and see how they operate, which worked well even though I wasn’t actually there!'
Following on from this, we planned for me to come down and run a weekend workshop morning with the group, with the timing working perfectly for me to attend a Music Creator Skills Day just a few days before my workshop. This day allowed us all to practise our workshops on each other and gain inspiration from the shared ideas we all brought together. I personally took so much from these sessions, and borrowed a few warm-up games to take along to my workshop too!
The music creators and mentors of Adopt a Music Creator meet up for a skills day workshop
To conclude a whirlwind month, I finally met my group in person, travelling down for a three-hour workshop session scheduled just for this project (!), which was absolutely fantastic - giving me the opportunity to ease them into things and get to know each other, rather than just having to jump straight in with workshop material. I could not have had a warmer welcome from the group - they were so engaged and willing to participate, and the large break for coffee and cake was equally spectacular (the Victoria sponge with fresh raspberries was a true highlight…)!
'Gaining inspiration while decorating my house, I became intrigued by the paint colours and the interesting names...'
Gaining inspiration while decorating my house, I became intrigued by the paint colours and the interesting names they had (‘Borrowed Light’ is my personal favourite). I therefore took my five favourite colours/names along with me to the workshop, having painted them on canvas boards to use as inspiration. I then split the ensemble into small groups and gave them each a colour, asking them to create a short melody based on their idea of what that colour would sound like.
BWAFE split into groups to discuss their designated colour
I wasn’t sure what to expect, but they went beyond my expectations, creating not just melodies but whole soundworlds, which was the best result I could have hoped for! I now have so much musical material to work with and hopefully for the ensemble to feel like they have a voice and hear their ideas in the music that comes out.
So, now comes the hard part… actually putting some notes down on paper! This past month of activity has given me so much inspiration, so watch this space. Soon, I will be bringing some initial sketches back to the group - I hope they like them!
Read BWAFE's blog on their first meeting
Follow the Bedfordshire Woodwind Academy Flute Ensemble on Facebook / Twitter
The Adopt a Music Creator project matches vocal and instrumental leisure-time music groups with some of the UK’s most promising music creators to collaborate on creating a new piece of music. The project leads to a premiere performance and possible broadcast. If you’re a music group or music creator and you’d like to take part, find out more.
