In the Mix was an exciting project that created music making opportunities for young people in Greater Manchester.
The project worked with young people from diverse geographical areas, cultures and backgrounds, to develop music-based collaborative work through a variety of projects and partnerships. The project brought together young people who were at different stages of their development, those who were musically active and those for whom music-making was a new experience.
Music-making can mean DJing, singing, rapping, music production or learning how to get involved in performing work on stage and at events in the community.
The project also developed young people and artists through identifying training needs and supporting professional development for emerging bands and musicians.
In the Mix projects included (please click on each project link for more details):
- 42nd Street Young Women’s Group
- African Music Project – Afrocats
- Beat Box Orchestra
- Bloco Novo – East Manchester Drumming Collective
- City Centre Project
- Habonim Dror
- Hattersley Youth Group
- Hyde Hip Hop Project
- Rochdale Refugee Arts
- Summer Fiesta
- The Goodfellas
- VoiceBox– Funky Youth Choir
- Wai Yin Chinese Project
42nd Street Young Women’s Group
This young women’s group wanted to develop their skills in singing, kit drumming, guitar and MCing. The project ran from June 2005 and embraced a diversity of music making skills. The project was initially a developmental project with future work being identified throughout. There were many opportunities for the young people to perform, meet other young people and progress through involvement in other ‘In the Mix’ projects.
African Music Project – Afrocats
This project focused on the development of a musical theatre piece for the Afrocats play ‘Where is Home?’ which ran in late 2005. The music was a mixture of modern and traditional music styles and was a reflection of the various drama pieces and complemented the text of the play.
Young people were recruited as part of the project, as music workshop participants to be part of the composing, arranging and performance of the pieces. Several of the Workshop trainees worked on the project as part of their paid work placements.
‘Where is Home?’ was performed at The Greenroom and the Zion Centre in Manchester.
‘Home was somewhere you left when you were 14. Home was the back of a lorry for 14 days. Home is now here in the UK. Today you’re 18 and a letter tells you to go back….home? A ‘home’ that you may not even remember…Or a ‘home’ that doesn’t remember you…
In The Mix recruited 6 to 8 young people to get involved in creating and performing the music for the piece with workshops led by the music director and international musician, Sam ‘Papa Sam’ Maitland.
Beat Box Orchestra
This workshop was led by Associate Artist, Jason Singh, an experienced beat box artist, musician, engineer and deliverer of workshops with young people.
The workshop encouraged twelve young people to develop making music/sounds with their voice and mouth. The sessions took place over three full days in November 2005 and culminated in a performance at the final In the Mix jam session held at the greenroom. The project served as a pilot in order to establish links with young people and to learn from the process, in order to develop future work. The project encouraged young women to participate in beat box style projects.
Bloco Novo – East Manchester Drumming Collective
Wai Yin Chinese Project
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