I have been musically adopted!
I’m looking forward to trying something a bit different this year. I’ll be working collaboratively with Harpenden Barbershop Harmony Club (HBHC) as part of Making Music’s project Adopt A Music Creator.
Adopt A Music Creator is often referred to as “the blind date of the music creation world.” The project pairs emerging music creators with leisure-time music groups for a year to create and premiere new and inspiring pieces.
Since its beginning in 2000, the project has offered artistic development to music creators and groups, and celebrated music making of all genres – showcasing the creative vitality of the UK’s leisure-time music scene. The four 2024 pairings were selected by a team of experts at Making Music, and include vocal and instrumental groups.
Everything relating to this project so far has been a beautiful surprise. Being interviewed via video link from a backpackers’ hostel in Ecuador at 7:30am, I did not expect to be selected! Nor did I expect to be paired with a barbershop choir, or with a group who rehearse so close to where I live (how lucky am I)!
Over the next few months I will be meeting the choir and leading some creative workshops with them to generate musical material for the new work. I will be looking at how I can take elements of barbershop music and place them into a different setting, bending them towards my sound world.
I am really looking forward to working with HBHC, immersing myself in a blanket of close harmony, and moulding it into my own sound. I anticipate an inspiring musical year ahead!
AaMC launch day. Left to right: Jenni Pinnock (mentor), Mike Rose (HBHC Chairman), Dave Anstice-Pim (HBHC conductor), Charlotte Botterill (composer)
Adopt a Music Creator is run by Making Music and funded by the PRS Foundation and Philip and Dorothy Green Trust as well as Creative Scotland.