Past events

We were invited to participate in this lovely concert which featured performances from York's refugee and asylum seeker community. We invited audience participation and enjoyed sharing our music in a different venue as part of this event.

Organiser feedback: 

'Thank you for your amazing contribution to our music event during Refugee week. It was so lovely to see the work you've been doing shared with such a large number of people - and great to see the audience getting involved themselves. Thanks for all your hard work and for supporting our cause'

In our talk we discussed how our work could take art as a creative starting point; using the image of Monet's Waterlilies on display at the Gallery we invited our audience to participate in a short musical creative experience which gave them a taste of what our workshops are like. 

Audience feedback:

'What a wonderful, moving session, it was amazing to link to the 'bridge' in Monet and such a warm environment. Amazing acoustics and lovely participation, thank you!'

'Loved the enthusiasm and commitment of the people who were involved in the project'

'Great workshop, fantastic approach providing musical and artistic coming together'

'Worked really well to demonstrate the approach to building up a musical soundscape linked to picture - much better than just a talk'

'10/10 what a lovely experience. It was much more moving and emotive than I imagined. Such a feeling of connection. I would love to experience something like this again'

Funding from the City of York Council enabled us to provide a series of music workshops for refugees and asylum seekers in York, October 2023-March 2024. We held these at The Citadel, and were excited to work with wonderful participants of varied ages and backgrounds, including University of York Music student volunteers. An informal sharing performance concluded the project, which was a lovely way to involve friends and families. 

Feedback: 

'Thanks so much for this beautiful little treasure of an event! In an often challenging world, small beauties like a warm room full of joyous people gathering, singing, making music, smiling, laughing and dancing together, make all of us kings and queens'

'Thank you for this opportunity to be among your wonderful musical team! This is very valuable to me! Thank you very much for your hospitality and kindness to my friends. I was very pleased to see that they were interested in us. I was incredibly excited to share with them what I love. And it's thanks to you!'

'Very friendly and unthreatening approach to helping audience to participate in music making and singing. Enjoyable atmosphere, one which would encourage anyone present'  

We gave a workshop as part of this festival at York Explore Central Library.

Participant feedback: 

'I really liked the peaceful music making'

'The music session was absolutely calming and very engaging, loved it!' 

'I really enjoyed how interactive it was and how ‘organic’ it felt'

This seminar focused on our recent research exploring the approaches of our two facilitators, Bethan and Laura. Co-facilitation has provided many benefits to the workshop preparation, delivery and participant experience; our findings highlight aspects including adaptability, flexibility, sharing, the value of singing, and navigating through challenges. 

'Thanks for the wonderful seminar today. I enjoyed it very much' 

A creative workshop to discover how small actions of welcome, creativity and community can affect participants’ lives.

Image credit:  Iris,Helen,silvy on Pixabay