The Hear and Now Project
The Philharmonia Orchestra and Orchestra’s Live – The Hear and Now Project
Co-produced by the Philharmonia and Orchestras Live, Hear and Now is a nationally-recognised intergenerational music making project which has run in Bedford for 13 years. Hear and Now brings together members of the Tibbs community, young singers from Fusion Youth choir and Philharmonia musicians. Together we embark on a creative journey collaborating and creating through a series of workshops until we reach our destination of a unique, uplifting, life affirming and always fun interactive performance.
Hear and Now 2022 – ‘Sticks and Stones’
This year, we were also joined by dance artist Serena Williams from House of Absolute as well as members of North Bedfordshire Youth Chamber Orchestra, Da Capo String Ensemble. Together we created new music, spoken word and movement based on the themes of Human/Nature.
‘ We are born, we hit, shake and scrape things. And we move incessantly. There are things we love, things we hate, things new and things old: things we remember and things to discover. And throughout everything, there are relationships: sticks and stones, salt and pepper, up and down, hot and cold, music and dance.’
‘Hear and Now Sticks and Stones presents some things new, some old, some things together, some separate, some things big, some small: but all things wonderful.’
Our 10th anniversary project November 2019
Our ongoing partnership with the Philharmonia Orchestra, Orchestra’s Live and Fusion Youth Choir now in its 10th year is very special and important to us. Our inter-generational projects bring together younger and older participants from the local community, with each project culminating with a performance to the public. The process follows a series of creative workshops in which we are given the opportunity to create and compose original music, take creative risks and perform side-by-side with professional musicians. Throughout, we are supported by the Philharmonia Orchestra and our artistic director Tim Steiner to develop our ideas and shape them into something spectacular.
Our collaborations have enabled us to express our creativity, develop an understanding of each other and to form strong friendships. The experience of Hear and Now continues to give us the confidence and self-belief that we can achieve anything we set our minds to if we all work together.
https://www.philharmonia.co.uk/education/communities_and_family/hear_and_now
We were recently featured in a national report of good practise commissioned by The Baring Foundation: http://www.orchestraslive.org.uk/news/bingo-to-bartok/
Many of our rehearsals take place at All Saint’s Church, where we run several of our groups and is the venue for many of our concerts. All Saint’s Church has been an valued supporter of the Tibb’s community, providing us with a strong base particularly in our early years. As Fusion Youth Choir is based in the church, it also enables us to maintain our partnership with the choir.
During the lockdown we were privileged and proud to be able to continue working with the Philharmonia Orchestra, Fusion Youth Choir and Leicester’s Musical Memory Box choir, co- produced with Orchestras Live. We quickly adapted to working together via zoom and when lockdown restrictions eased were able to enjoy some creative doorstep moments. The project enabled us to remain connected, retain our strong sense of community and to find a means of expressing some difficult emotions through, for many a very challenging time. We quickly discovered new ways to connect and create together and realised that although we were often miles apart our friendships endured, even strengthened and our creativity flowed. This film reflects this strange and unique time and how creativity and friendships endure.