The Commonwealth Resounds! has been delighted to recommend outstanding international string players to the Malta Philharmonic for their prestigious concert in the Malta Arts Festival
We shall soon be able to give more information about exciting developments with the Commonwealth Festival Orchestra and Choir building up towards CHOGM 2015.
Projects and performances linked to our 10th Anniversary Celebrations will be running throughout 2015.
In 2015, The Commonwealth Resounds! will be celebrating its 10th Anniversary. There will be many fascinating musical events linked to this, but perhaps the most exciting of all will be our return to Malta for CHOGM 2015, where our programme first began in 2005. This is an amazing coincidence, about which we are all delighted.
We are hoping to bring to Malta a wonderful dynamic musical programme shaped by the needs and wishes of this beautiful, special host country.
2015 will be a very important year for The Commonwealth Resounds! and we warmly invite others to join with us and help celebrate it. New ideas and partners will be warmly welcomed.
The Commonwealth Piano Foundation has been created by Young Ambassador Vatche Jambazian in association with The Commonwealth Resounds. This exciting new initiative will support and encourage pianists all over the Commonwealth and already has an impressive track record dating back to 2009, when The Commonwealth Resounds created the world’s first PIANORAMA in Trinidad and Tobago, commissioning 53 x 1-minute piano pieces, from every Commonwealth country!
For more information click here.
More developments linked to The Commonwealth Piano Foundation will be published soon!
Projects run by The Commonwealth Resounds! have helped enable several young musicians to achieve their Gold Arts Award. This is the highest level of a special arts-based qualification run jointly by the Arts Council of Great Britain and Trinity College. The pupils involved were part of the Royal Opera House’s Bridge Pilot project, and they used their Commonwealth musical leadership experiences to help gain the award. All are under the age of 18!
Ruth – raised enough money not only to get herself to Sri Lanka as part of The Commonwealth Resounds! team, but also extra to help the charitable organisation SONGBOUND start three new children’s choirs in Sri Lanka. She wrote about her experiences for her Gold Arts Award.
Seo-Jin and Stephanie – performed in a special opera written by the Anglo-Indian composer Danyal Dhondy, and ran their own workshops for children in Sri Lankan schools and orphanages. Both evaluated an documented their leadership projects for their Gold Arts Award.
Sophia – organised and ran her own fundraising concert for the Sri Lankan Commonwealth team. This took place at the Conway Hall in London. Sophia’s friends all came to perform and they raised £900. Sophia created a special website for her Gold Arts Award, and she evaluated and described all her hard work running this concert as the basis of the whole of Unit 2 – Arts Leadership Project.
Projects run by The Commonwealth Resounds! have helped enable several young musicians to achieve Gold @ArtsAward http://t.co/UfSi0ZWWJ4
— Arts Award (@ArtsAward) February 18, 2014
In 2007, the Kampala Music School partnered with international musicians from The Commonwealth Resounds! to form the first-ever Commonwealth Festival Orchestra! This enabled musicians from different countries to perform side-by-side and with the help of Ugandan church choirs, perform Mozart’s Requiem for a large, appreciative congregation in Namirembe Cathedral, Kampala.
The orchestra was formed again for CHOGM 2009, when it was featured in a Gala Performance sponsored jointly by the Trinidad Government and the T&T Entertainment Company. A new piece was written for the orchestra by young composer Lloyd Coleman, who conducted it himself.
In 2013, the Commonwealth Festival Orchestra regrouped to give a memorable performance in Westminster Abbey as part of Commonwealth Observance Day. Young composer Toby Hession’s new piece ‘Paraphrase on the National Anthem of Sri Lanka’ was specially commissioned for this occasion. The orchestra performed musical items by Purcell, Handel and Vaughan Williams which were also played at the 1953 Coronation.
For CHOGM 2013, a large group of international musicians from The Commonwealth Resounds! have been hosted by the Symphony Orchestra of Sri Lanka (SOSL) and combined to form a much bigger cross-cultural ensemble. All players will share skills and support one another. Professionals will coach self-taught players. The musical programme includes works that SOSL would never normally contemplate, and a specially composed fanfare by young composer Alan Mofti.
The Commonwealth Resounds! and the Symphony Orchestra of Sri Lanka are both very proud of the collaborative example demonstrated by the Commonwealth Festival Orchestra, and believe that this is an inexpensive and highly effective way to help and support developing orchestras in different countries.