The last few months have seen people across the globe experience the importance of community, the sense of being part of something and the support and comfort that can bring. The London Sinfonietta is celebrating this by commissioning a series of four new portrait works inspired by individuals, groups or organisations.
We invited you to nominate a member of the public to be the subject of one of these new works. The four works, each written by a different composer, reflect the stories that have come out of the past few months and the individuals or organisations who mean a lot to a community. Each work will be premiered this month by a London Sinfonietta musician in a community setting to celebrate the importance of live performance and share new music with new audiences, and the recorded performances will be posted on our channel.
We are excited to announce the four Community Commissions compositions that will be performed throughout October to the special individuals that you nominated.
On Wednesday 14 October, for the first of our Community Commissions, The Mighty Pen by Trish Clowes will be performed by our principal saxophone Simon Haram for the organisation Ageing Better St Pancras. Click here to watch the performance
On Wednesday 21 October, The Music is Joy by Cassie Kinoshi, played by Principal Trumpet Christian Barraclough will be performed to Adela Bainbridge, a mum who has worked tirelessly for refugee communities for decades, and has uplifted the lives of those around her. Click here to watch the performance
on Sunday 25 October (as part of ReAssemble Online) Rargy by Zoë Martlew will be performed by horn player Robyn Blair for Garry Greenland, a warehouse manager at a foodback in Lewisham, who has worked throughout lockdown to support those in need.
Finally on Wednesday 4 November, Blessed Sacrament RC Primary School in Islington will receive a piece by Yshani Perinpanayagam, performed by principal trombone Byron Fulcher.
All of the performances will be available to stream on the London Sinfonietta Channel.
"Community commissions is all about engaging the public in commissioning new music and putting them at the centre of the creative process. What better way to do this than to work with the local community surrounding our office base at Kings Place? Ageing Better St Pancras and Somerstown and Blessed Sacrament RC Primary School, Islington, represent the diverse communities we are part of and community commissions allows us to reach out to them at a time when they can’t necessarily come to us." Rhuti Carr, Head of Participation & Learning, London Sinfonietta
Community Commissions #1
Community Commissions #2
Make a donation
All our events this autumn are being presented online for free, so that as many people as possible can experience the best new music being written today. But if you are enjoying our live streams, please do consider donating at whatever level you can afford to support the London Sinfonietta’s work and its musicians both now and in the future – in schools, on the concert platform and in the community. It might be the price of a coffee, or the cost of a ticket to one of our live events.
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Throughout October
