In 2017, Hurricane Irma created great devastation, especially in the Commonwealth countries of Antigua and Barbuda, St Kitts and Nevis and Dominica.

Before CHOGM 2018, The Commonwealth’s Secretary-General appealed to all Commonwealth Accredited Organisations, asking them for some help and support. The Commonwealth Resounds, as a musical organisation wondered at first how we could possibly do anything to help. Then we had an idea!

We contacted many of our musical outreach partners in the UK – primary and secondary schools, individuals, music hubs and others – and asked them to consider running their own Hurricane Support Concerts, educating children and audiences about the Commonwealth, the Caribbean and hurricanes, and raising funds to rebuild cultural programmes in affected countries. There was a very positive response to this appeal! Schools in London, Hertfordshire, Manchester and Norfolk responded and created excellent concerts, raising funds for the hurricane victims.

The Commonwealth Hurricane Support Concerts programme is making excellent progress, and more concerts will be taking place in schools  throughout 2018 and 2019.

To offer a concert, find out more or to support for the programme in other ways please email Alison Cox OBE, Founder and Chair of Trustees, The Commonwealth Resounds at tcr2015@btinternet.com Alison will be delighted to hear from you, and will be able to answer all your questions.

21 – 31 October 2017

Our aim is to provide our students from the UK with a unique educational experience where they will visit a part of the world previously unknown to most of them, learn about the different life and culture and master skills of leading and collaborating with other young people in musical projects. We also aim to give the people we will meet the chance to expand their musical experiences and education with practical and hands-on activities. Our musical skills can also be utilised to entertain in the form of concerts, both formal and informal.

Our principal contact is with Kampala Music School. We are in discussions with them and proposals include individual instrument workshops, public masterclasses and performances which will include collaborative chamber music groups with UK and Ugandan students working together, a chamber ensembles concert and an orchestral project culminating in a final concert.

We are also embarking on the process of contacting schools, hospitals, orphanages and other community organisations in and around Kampala. Our template for these is to offer the services of ourselves and our students free of charge (we only ask the venue we are visiting for suitable refreshments). We adapt the programme to the needs and wishes of each individual venue and organisation but activities would typically include playing an informal concert, offering coaching and collaborative playing to any instrumentalists/singers we meet and giving youngsters in schools and elsewhere the opportunity to see, handle and try instruments they may never have seen before, let alone played. Confirmed partners include the Kampala Singers, the MLISADA brass band and the Bayimba foundation.

We will be seeking opportunities for our students to learn more about Uganda, both before we go and whilst we are there. This may include workshops with local musicians and/or academics who can explain about and demonstrate traditional instruments and talks given by people with medical and charitable experience of working in Uganda.

We are delighted to be supporters of the Commonwealth Festival Choir.

This area is quite new, so please bear with us whilst we put everything together!