Migrant Voices at Stoller Hall
RNCM students and alumni will join a multitude of musicians at Stoller Hall on Saturday 4 June for Olympias Music Foundation’s Migrant Voices project.
Current students Emilio Yanez Ruiz, Alejandro Urbina Diaz, Abhishek Pichumani and alumni Anna McLuckie and Awen Blandford are five of 34 artists from 27 countries taking part in this exciting event, including West African musician and WOMAD festival headliner, Sens Sagna, acclaimed Pakistani sufi singer, Sarah Yaseen, and BBC Folk Singer of the Year, Ríoghnach Connolly.
The performance forms part of a 5-day artist residency for global musicians in Manchester, led by Olympias Music Foundation. OMF is a Manchester charity which uses music to bring diverse communities together and improve the representation of multicultural artists. It was established in 2015 by alumna Jo-Yee Cheung and has achieved considerable success over the past few years.
Born out of Mapping Migrant Voices, an interactive map of Greater Manchester with life stories from 70 Manchester musicians from 30+ different countries created during the 2020 lockdown, this is the first time that those involved have met in person or performed together.
Abhishek, an undergraduate violinist, said: ‘How I see Manchester is as a space where a lot of people can find a sustainable environment to be an artist…I enjoy the culture and the youthfulness of this place…Because of the many artists that have come from Manchester, [its] cultural zeitgeist has inspired me to compose…Playing music for people here allows me to understand my performance, and that has influenced it in ways…If I had stayed in India, the music I would have written would be vastly different to what I am doing here being in Manchester.’
With musical styles ranging from Indian raga and Carnatic music, flamenco, Romanian folk song, Brazilian samba, gospel and Irish trad, the project celebrates the diversity of people and their music across Greater Manchester and invites audiences to explore and connect with the breadth of musical creativity on their doorstep.
Click here for tickets and more information.
23 May 2022
