Many Voices
In a time where we are seeing cuts to both music education and our relations with other cultures, the creation of Many Voices seems more admirable and important than ever.
NMC was thrilled to partner with London Music Masters in 2018 to create a book and CD of ten new pieces for violin, Many Voices. The book is aimed at students currently learning at around ABRSM Grades 2-5, and is distributed to LMM’s learning programme of over 1,000 children, as part of their 10th anniversary celebrations and NMC’s 30th anniversary.
We launched Many Voices with LMM at our special 30th anniversary event at the V&A Museum of Childhood in Bethnal Green, featuring performances by 10 children of three pieces from the book to an invited audience of 100 guests. This included parents, composers, artists and publishers, as well as donors and supporters of NMC and LMM’s work.
Colin Matthews, curator of Many Voices for London Music Masters writes:
"In 2018 London Music Masters celebrated its 10th birthday. As part of the celebrations we commissioned ten of the most exciting emerging and established composers working in the UK today to create new works for children and young people. The pieces are inspired by, and dedicated to, the young musicians learning as part of London Music Masters’ primary school music education programme. We believe that by including the many diverse voices, perspectives and stories around us we can create music that will resonate today and in the years to come.
Our hope is that this collection will be as inspiring to the children who perform it as it is to the audiences who hear it. Writing for young musicians is such an important part of a composer’s job, not least because it stretches us. Writing for those who may be at a very early stage in their musical development without in any sense ‘writing down’ to them can be very demanding. The response from the composers who were approached to be part of the project has been so heartening, and there is the potential to expand to many more than those who are published here. There could not be a more appropriate title than Many Voices: the intention behind it was always to embrace open-mindedness to the vital importance that creativity plays in our lives, while reflecting the fact that the singing voice is the starting point for all music and fundamental to the development of instrumental writing."
When writing my piece I harked back to my student days and remembered what I used to work on as a budding young violinist. I decided to create a work dedicated to détaché bowing and in a way it is an homage to my own early learnings and the bow arm techniques of violinists that I used to look up to.