Dr Noël James, director & CEO of Milton Keynes City Discovery Centre, outlines an exciting new project to connect music makers across the world.
Our project, 'You Are Not Alone', will be using the Cathal Smyth (formerly of Madness) song, ‘You're Not Alone’, to unite families and friends in the UK with their overseas counterparts. The power of music will bring together many individuals who have been isolated and kept apart by Covid-19.
We’ll be working with a diverse range of organisations and schools, reaching out to BAME, LGBQT+, dementia and music therapy groups, bringing together voices from across the community.
‘You're Not Alone’ will be performed live at Bradwell Abbey and will connect Milton Keynes to the UK and the wider world via livestreaming and digital solutions that have come to the fore during the pandemic.
We’ll be incorporating mindfulness music workshops to help groups learn the music, and we hope to capture pre-filmed chats and meaningful moments with individuals. This footage will be interspersed with the performance livestream and the edited video that will follow.
Participant portraits will also be used to create a digital photo board that will begin with one image, that will then replicate at the current R rate of Covid-19, until the screen is filled with pictures of all the people who have contributed to the project.
We’ll be documenting the process through online interviews and ‘making-of’ clips from rehearsals in cultural venues, with the documentary premiere taking place alongside the musical performance in the grounds of Bradwell Abbey!
The performance will likely take place on Sunday 5 December and all segments can be pre-recorded. To be part of ‘You Are Not Alone’, get in touch with Noël directly.
