Spring 2010
Oxford Concert Party Community Exchange Project
In March 2010, the Oxford Concert Party ran a Community Exchange project in Oxfordshire.
The project was run with detainees from Campsfield House Immigration Removal Centre in Kidlington and children of Kirtlington Primary School, Kirtlington. Although the children and detainees were unable to meet, they communicated through songs, poetry, drawings and instrumental music. The result was a colourful and moving collage of words and music.
Here is a track where we have combined the voices of the children and detainees on one song, "Song of Freedom", an original composition with words by the children.
Kirtlington pupil, Millie Popham, wrote a moving poem, "I Am Running", which she performs with OCP cellist, Trevor Burley
The project was delivered by the Oxford Concert Party on behalf of Music in Detention who work through music to give voice to immigration detainees and create channels of communication between them, immigration detention staff, local communities and the wider public.
Abingdon Resource & Wellbeing Centre
The Oxford Concert Party has done several workshops at the Abingdon Resource & Wellbeing Centre. Sharon Woodward has produced a video about the work of the centre which includes performances and music by the OCP and the video can be seen on Youtube.
The Oxford Concert Party on a Short Tour
The Oxford Concert Party in rehearsal at All Saint's Church
The Oxford Concert Party was on the road for a short tour in June. After a few days running a prison project in Cambridgeshire, we spent a day playing community centre concerts in Heacham, which were delightful experiences for us. We could write pages to try to convey the atmosphere, but we have decided to leave it to two people who were in our audience at A Piece of Mind club in Heacham. Edward took some photos of the group in action here
And Jennifer Starr wrote this lovely poem: Click here to view it
On Saturday 19th, we played All Saint's Church in Stoke Ferry where we were generously hosted by Kit Hesketh-Harvey. Although it was a surprisingly chilly evening for June, the welcome we received from the local audience was very warm. The venue was a very pretty little church and as the evening drew in, the concert ended in soft candlelight.
Oxford Folk Festival
On 17th April, we returned to the Holywell Music Room, this time as guests of the 7th Oxford Folk Festival. It was the first time we had appeared at the festival and we were made extremely welcome by everyone. We were delighted to see a few familiar faces in the audience and we also had the opportunity to play to a whole group of new people. We had some wonderful feedback with comments including:
"We just wanted to tell you how much we adored your concert - wonderful music, brilliant playing and fun!! We will keep an eye out for future concerts in Oxford and encourage as many of our friends as possible to come"
"I've never heard classical musicians playing folk music so superbly."
"The Oxford Concert Party flawlessly mixed classical precision with charming and humorous introductions to a wide range of material from Vivaldi to O'Calloran. The music was well suited to the atmosphere of the Holywell and special mentions must go to the drunken cello player - a stunning piece of playing and play-acting." Bright Young Folk
We filmed the concert and hope to have some clips on Youtube soon.
Age Concern Oxfordshire
On 16th April, to fit in with our folk festival appearance, we played two concerts at day centres, hosted by Age Concern. In the morning, we were at the Kidlington Day Centre and then we whizzed across town to play at the Clockhouse Community Centre in the afternoon. Our audiences were small groups, but extremely welcoming and they seemed to enjoy themselves as much as we did. Thank you to the staff for setting up these events.
