mif report amadou+mariam bwo paul hamlyn[1]

8/6/2019 MIF Report Amadou+Mariam BWO Paul Hamlyn[1]

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Amadou & Mariam and the Beating Wing Orchestra

July 7th and 8th 2009Manchester International Festival

Summary Report to the Paul Hamlyn Foundation

Co-Produced with Community Arts North West Supported by the Paul Hamlyn Foundation



Author: Jennifer Cleary, Head of Creative Learning, Manchester International Festival, October 2009Images: Sharon Latham (performances) and Shaw and Shaw (all other) for Manchester InternationalFestival.



‘Amadou is playing a delightfully evocative African guitar lick. Meanwhile, a Chinese Bel Canto opera singer is singing, there’s a Kurdistani saz player in the background, and a Bangladeshi rapper is about to make her entrance. This is a proper collaboration for MIF that has been worked on since the end of

last year, and it shows. Warm, happy and vibrant’ **** Metro

‘this was joyful music made with love and excitement – a real Mali-Manchester soul stew’ **** Manchester Evening News

‘The music unites the crowd in a sweaty mess of clapping and dancing’ **** The Guardian

‘Inspired by the Beating Wing Orchestra’s ceaseless energy and visible enthusiasm, tracks such as Ce

N’est Pas Bon, Djuru and I Follow You elicit broad smiles throughout the venue, as their infectious rhythms take hold.’

**** MusicOMH

‘Heart warming and uplifting they play a colourful set that moves the crowd and has them smiling from the inside out’

Click Lancashire



1. Background

Formed in Manchester from musicians of refugee, asylum seeker, other migrant backgrounds andmusicians from Manchester’s host communities, the Beating Wing Orchestra is a unique group ofmusicians who speak a global music vocabulary.

Members of the orchestra come from countries as diverse as Kurdistan and Cameroon, Bangladesh

and Brazil and each bring their own individual musical style and talents. As an international musicalgroup, Beating Wing Orchestra (BWO) helps to forge new connections between the city’s rich mix ofmusicians. In turn, this helps bring communities together through music to share experiences, ideasand understanding.

BWO was originally brought together by Community Arts North West (CAN) and ManchesterInternational Festival (MIF) to undertake a commission for the 2007 Festival. The orchestra workedwith Palestinian singer and composer, Reem Kelani and the resulting short performance was one ofthe highlights of the 2007 Festival, earning a 5* review in the Metro newspaper. To help the orchestrato build on this success and develop further as a group, MIF and CAN proposed to work with thegroup on a second commission for the 2009 Manchester International Festival, this time inviting theorchestra to develop a full-length concert with Malian musicians, Amadou and Mariam.

This document reports on the journey taken to develop and deliver this unique collaboration. Theproject was commissioned by Manchester International Festival and produced by ManchesterInternational Festival and Community Arts North West. Brief outlines of each organisation areprovided in appendix 1.

2. Objectives

Following the success of the 2007 partnership, CAN and MIF were keen to continue their support forthe orchestra with this second, more challenging commission. Key objectives of the work were tosupport:

1. continuation and development of BWO as an ‘international orchestra’ of 12 musicians from refugeeand asylum seeker and migrant backgrounds;

2. 100% of the orchestra members learning new skills and gaining more confidence through theprocess;

3. successful collaboration between different communities, cultures and musical styles and to haveprovided a potential model (for MIF and the wider cultural sector) for future inter-culturalcollaborations.

4. 3 high-quality, full-length performances by the end of the 2009 Manchester International Festival;

5. raised awareness and increased audience attendance by community groups / members who comefrom refugee, asylum seeker and migrant backgrounds.



3. Project Development

This artistic approach for this project was quite different to the 2007 approach, allowing us to test anew model of the orchestra working together and in partnership with major international artists. Ratherthan having new work composed for them, it supported the orchestra to bring their own musical ideasand expertise to the table, to re-imagine Amadou and Mariam’s music with different sounds, styles andcultural influences. The schedule for development was as follows:

July 2008 Recruitment of lead artists, Amadou and Mariam. See appendix 2 fortheir biography.

September 2008 Recruitment of new members of BWO. See appendix 3 for a list oforchestra members.

October 2008 BWO start weekly rehearsals.

November 2008 Arun Ghosh appointed as Musical Director. See appendix 4 for Arun’sbiography.

11 – 13 December2008

3-day development workshop between the orchestra and Amadou andMariam.

January – March2009 BWO weekly rehearsals (except school holidays).

20 March 2009 First BWO performance, at Exodus Live event managed by CAN.6 – 8 April 2009 3-day development workshop between the orchestra and Amadou and

Mariam.

April – June 2009 BWO weekly rehearsals (except school holidays).

22 – 23 June 2009 Final development workshops between orchestra and Marc Antoine andYves Abadi (A+M management).

23 – 6 July 2009 Final rehearsals for BWO and Arun Ghosh.

7 - 8 July 2009 Performances at MIF.

4. The Artists

4.1 Beating Wing Orchestra

Arun Ghosh (Musical Director) Jazz clarinet and harmonium

Emmanuela Macholi Yogolelo Vocalist

Pat Mackman Drums

Serge Tebu Jazz piano and organ

Aisha Lourenco Brazilian percussion

Nicki Dupuy Bass Guitar

Ismaeel Osman Sabir Kurdish saz, acoustic guitar and vocals

Jaheda Choudhury Bangladeshi rap

Zhou Juan Chinese Bel CantoLis Murphy Bosnian fiddle

Azzad Hassan Kurdish saz

4.2 Amadou and Mariam

Amadou Bagayoko Vocals and guitar

Mariam Doumbia Vocals

Yves Abadi Percussion



5. Performances

The performances took place on 7th and 8th July 2009 at the Pavilion Theatre on Albert Square.Capacity was 450 each night and both nights were performed to a full capacity audience.

As part of MIF’s Community Box Office programme, 100 tickets were allocated to CAN to distribute at£3 per ticket to their network of refugee and asylum seeker groups. A number of these groups

attended and their feedback is outlined below.

© Sharon Latham for Manchester International Festival



6. Audience Feedback

Audiences to the Beating Wing Orchestra concerts rated the event highly, 93% of the audience rated it7 out of 10 or higher with 52% giving it the top scores of 9 or 10. Sample comments from theaudience include:

‘This has to be one of the festival highlights………………….the performance was great. I particularly

liked the BWO's own material. Chinese Opera was a stroke of genius.’ Tim Chatterton, Band OnThe Wall.

‘Ten of our service users and two staff went to the tent and everyone (including myself) thought it was fantastic. The group that came are all either on section 4 support or destitute and don't have much or any cash for nights out. All of them raved about it afterward and asked me to pass on our thanks.’ Daniel Murphy, George House Trust.

‘They were amazing, all of them in harmony together - and collaborating with those Malian superstars, that's just a blessing in itself.’ B of Educated Thugz reviewing online for BBCManchester.

‘Having never seen the band before I had no expectations about them but I loved the music and all the performers and thought it was really professional and well thought out. I would definitely go to see Beating Wing again!” Stockport Refugee Support Group member.

‘Before the trip I did not have any idea about it so I was very excited. After the trip I felt very happy because I enjoyed myself. I enjoyed the music and the ambiance. I would like to do something like this again.’ Stockport Refugee Support Group member.

7. Press and critical feedback

‘It was like it wasn’t a new collaboration; it was like they had been playing together for years.’ BBC Manchester Online

The collaboration captured the imagination of journalists and commentators and, ahead of theperformances, the work was covered in a range of print and broadcast media including the Metro, theGuardian, the Manchester Evening News, Society Guardian, New York Time Out, Guardian WeekendGuide, Guardian Online and City Life.

A 7 minute film entitled Speaking Through Music and featuring the BWO rehearsals with Amadou andMariam was aired on CNN. In addition, a 6 minute film on The Guardian Online featured the stories ofthe refugee and asylum seeker musicians of the orchestra, as well as footage of their rehearsals.http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/video/2009/jul/15/amadou-mariam-beating-wing-orchestra .

Critical response to the performances was positive, earning an array of 4* reviews including theGuardian, Metro, Manchester Evening News and Music OMH. A selection of comments from thepress can be found in the opening pages of this report and a selection of reviews are attached asAppendix 6.

The advertising equivalent value of this press interest was £43,290. Importantly, this level of profilehas increased awareness of the orchestra locally and nationally, and generated future bookings for thegroup.



8. Performance against key objectives

All but one of the key objectives set at the start of the project were achieved, as evidenced below.The objective that was not met (the number of participants in the group being 11 rather than 12) was aresult of a decision taken to protect the development of the project, and is explained below.

Objective 1: Continuation and development of BWO, an ‘international orchestra’ of 12 musicians from refugee, asylum seeker and migrant backgrounds.

5 of the original BWO musicians took part in the 2009 commission. 5 new members were recruitedthrough auditions in September 2008 and Arun Ghosh was appointed shortly after. At this stage theCAN team were looking for 2 further musicians to bring Arabian or Middle Eastern influences to theorchestra’s music. By the time of the first development workshops with Amadou and Mariam none hadbeen identified and the plan was to recruit again in January 2009. However, it became clear during thefirst workshops that the group was working well together and a relationship had been established withAmadou and Mariam. It was felt that bringing in additional members after this point could bedetrimental to the working relationship of the group and a decision was taken not to expand the groupfurther.

1 member of the orchestra had to drop out in April due to personal circumstances. This is perhaps an

inevitable risk when working with members of the community who have such instability in theirpersonal lives.

The final number of musicians on stage during the performance was 13. This comprised Amadou andMariam, Yves Abadi and 10 members of the Beating Wing Orchestra including Musical Director ArunGhosh. The legacy section of this report discusses the post-2009 continuation and development ofthe orchestra.

Objective 2 : 100% of the orchestra members learning new skills and gaining more confidence through the process.

The progress and professional development of the group was evaluated after each development

workshop. All of the musicians indicated that they were learning and developing new skills including:

Learning about new African Malian music

Being more confident using email communication

Learning how to fuse different musical and cultural styles

Learning about working as part of a team and interacting with other musicians

Learning about how to be flexible to change, and how to make individual ideas work

Learning how to work with professional musicians, how to work really hard and get better.

Learning to write and practice English language skills.

All of the musicians felt that the project had helped them grow in confidence, for example:

‘It has given me confidence in myself and ability as a musician and artist to make music with all people, whoever and whatever level they are and where ever they are from. This has given me great confidence in myself and who I am.’ Ismaeel.

‘[The project has been] very important to me. Very happy when I see group really helping me.Thank you very much. You have really helped my confidence and given me confidence to help change some things in my life.’ Zhou.

‘[At first I found it] difficult to connect to the CD and come up with ideas. Found Amadou and Mariam and the music, brilliant in person. There was the space and very good guidance from them. On the last day of the workshops I felt really confident.’ Lis.



By the end of the project, the musicians had not only gained confidence individually but were workingmore collaboratively together, sharing ideas and working as a group with a shared ambition:

‘Now we have more references we need to engage in the ideas. We need more group development/consistent playing. We need to think more as a group, not just as individuals. They [Amadou and Mariam] are really professional.’ Aisha.

‘The standard of the orchestra has gone up dramatically. We got really tight together.’

Nicki.‘We are much more confident. Everyone here at BWO are bosses of their own musical bands – which are all different, but this is not here at BWO. This is the learning - it is not just about the personal development but about the group.’ Emmanuela.

Objective 3: Successful collaboration between different communities, cultures and musical styles and to have provided a potential model (for MIF and the wider sector) for future inter-cultural collaborations.

This project brought together disparate musical cultures and styles. The returning orchestra membershad worked together before but for many of the new members this was their first experience of

working together in such a culturally and musically diverse group. On occasion, this proved achallenge, with barriers such as language and differences in musical style and rhythm to overcome.However, it also proved an inspiration and meant that they were able to share their cultural andmusical heritage with musicians from host communities in Manchester and from other cultures acrossthe world. Sharing this part of themselves and their heritage was important to the members. It was asource of pride for many of the group that they could showcase their heritage not just to othermembers of the orchestra, but to musicians like Amadou and Mariam, and to MIF audiences.

‘First time I share with musicians from different cultures. I like. We need more practice time with group.’ Azzad.

Really interesting so far. The 3 days really amazing and beautiful, particularly for me. Finding the Rap within the music was difficult at first but I found a way. The language (French) was a bit of a barrier at first, especially for me in writing lyrics that had meaning etc but I got over it.’ Jaheda.

‘I’m happy I join African Music. This is first time for me. I love now African music. I will learn more and get better. For many it was the first time they had worked with a Chinese Bel Canto singer, so I was very pleased to share my cultural art form.’ Zhou.

‘[I was able to share] my people’s music and showcase [it] in an international project like this. It is very important for Kurdish people and I feel proud to share my music. [The project] has been an important door opening for me to meet and share with new people ‘ Ismaeel.

‘I was able to share my Brazilian heritage and music styles such as Maracatua.’ Aisha.

‘The music is new and different, but I found a way in. I was inspired.’ Emmanuela.

The creative approach for this project was different to the way the orchestra had worked in their firstcommission for MIF, and whilst it had both pros and cons, it has provided a highly successful modelthat could be replicated and developed in the future. The opportunity to play with Amadou andMariam brought the orchestra’s work to a much higher standard and provided an opportunity for theorchestra to explore the Malian music discipline as a group. However, the structure of the project(based on re-imagining Amadou and Mariam’s work) occasionally felt to some members as though it



limited the creative freedom of the orchestra. This was partly solved by the inclusion of a Beating WingOrchestra composition, Louange , in the concerts. Louange was a piece that Amadou and Mariamreally liked and were able to find their own parts in.

‘What was good was the flexibility of everyone and willingness to work together and try new things.’ Ismaeel.

‘The rehearsals are going really well. We all get each other and the musicians are great. The mix of

people here means that we can start to do something really original.’ Amadou.

‘[Amadou and Mariam] were very open. Pure African music making and they work in the African way - they don’t tell you that you are doing it wrong, they just stop and start again until you get it right - did you notice?’ Pat.

‘They have a nice way of working. I enjoyed the process and working style very much. You could follow very clearly what they wanted/intended/expected of me and I was given the space to try and achieve what they wanted. They had a very good leadership style, very patient and hard working.’

‘Arun was the perfect Musical Director. He respected all, but was able to keep us all tight and was assertive when he needed to be.’ Nicki.

‘I will never forget this year of working together and with Amadou and Mariam and Arun. I have always felt that I was not quite at a professional level. This year I have felt that my standards have gone up. I felt the pressure and at times it was really hard but I made me take things seriously. I think that compared to my performance at the first years festival with Reem, I have improved as a singer.’ Emmanuela.

Feedback from the Musical Director also reinforced the positive effect the project had on the group:

‘working within and learning the musical structures of Amadou and Mariam’s work has given the

orchestra an incredible basic ability to creativity; approaching new arrangements and working together musically...this project will be hugely beneficial to the future of the orchestra.’ Arun.

Objective 4: 3 high-quality, full-length performances by the end of the 2009 Manchester International Festival.

Date Nature of performance Capacity

20th March 2009 Exodus Live Event 200

7th July 2009 BWO and Amadou and Mariam 450

8th July 2009 BWO and Amadou and Mariam 450

The enthusiasm and positive feedback received from press and audiences is testament to the high-quality of the performances produced.

The orchestra’s own reflections on the concerts also demonstrate how they felt about what they hadachieved:

‘This was the best I have ever played. I am not so used to people wanting me to do well. Everyone in Beating Wing Orchestra wants everyone to do really well. This is quite unusual.’ Lis.



‘Fantastic – I was very proud. [I] never thought that we would do work at the level we did.’ Ismaeel.

‘Amadou said that he did not recognize Dhuru at all, he felt that we had made it completely different and he liked a lot the new arrangement.’ Pat.

‘Some of [my] African friends were not moving to the music, which is very unusual as African people will show their appreciation of the music by moving to the rhythm. They said it was because they were so overcome. This is a real accolade.’ Emmanuela.

Importantly, the lead artists also enjoyed the project and the process of working with the orchestra:

‘Thanks to you all on behalf of Amadou & Mariam and myself. This project has been a fantastic experience and it has been a pleasure to work with you all.’ Marc Antoine Moreau.

Objective 5: Raised awareness and increased audience attendance by community groups / members who come from refugee, asylum seeker and migrant backgrounds

The show was attended by many of the orchestra’s friends and family involving communities fromAfrica, the Middle East, Bangladesh, China and more locally. The show was also watched and warmlyreceived by refugee and asylum seeker communities and organizations including WAST (WomenAsylum Seekers Together), George House Trust, Rainbow Haven, Testimony, Women from the FarWest, and others attending through Arts About Manchester, the local audience development agency. Some of their responses to the performances are outlined in section 6 above.

Some of these groups were able to attend the performances through tickets made available by MIFthrough a pilot initiative called the Community Box Office (CBO). Through the CBO, MIF worked inpartnership with a number of different community organizations to distribute 650 Festival tickets,priced at £3 per ticket, to parts of the local community that have traditionally been culturally

disenfranchised. Tickets were available for a number of shows including Amadou & Mariam and the Beating Wing Orchestra , for which CAN assisted distribution of 100 CBO tickets, as well as furtherhelping to finance some asylum seeker groups to attend. Feedback from the participating groups wasincredibly positive and reinforced the idea that a wider scheme could be of benefit not only to thecommunities involved but to increasing awareness and attendance at cultural events in Manchester inthe future. We are currently exploring ways of building on this approach in the future.

9. Conclusions

This was one of the most exciting and rewarding of the MIF Creative projects for 2009. The nature ofthe participants and the lead artists, their approach to the project and the effort that they all put intomaking the project a success was extraordinary. The participants enjoyed the project, describing it as

challenging but uplifting and inspiring. Whilst challenges arose, they were overcome throughcollaborative effort. Specific challenges included:-

• The nature of the personal circumstances facing the members of the orchestra. The skill andcommitment of the Community Arts North West team ensured that the participants felt supportedand able to commit to the full term of the project. This support, which included provision of practicalassistance such as child-care, flexibility in scheduling, as well as emotional support, was critical tothe success of the project and without it several of the participants would have found it difficult toremain involved;



• Long-term, distance collaboration with international artists. The project had to be structuredcarefully to ensure enough contact time between the Beating Wing Orchestra and Amadou andMariam, who are not UK-based, to ensure a high-quality experience for all involved, whilstremaining within budget. Everyone said how much they loved working with Amadou and Mariamand how generous they were;

• Structuring the development workshops in short but intense periods of 2-3 days was important butalso challenging for orchestra members unused to working at this intensity, level of concentration

and discipline. The appointment of a strong musical director to lead the group during thesesessions, and in periods between contact with Amadou and Mariam, was critical to this approachbeing successful;

• Although the project became more about interpretation and re-imagining of Amadou and Mariam’sown music, rather than composition of new music, there were other huge gains, such as bringingthe orchestra’s work to a higher standard, and working with the Malian music discipline;

• Language could potentially have been a barrier to communication but the musicians found theirown way of communicating together through music;

• The project was delivered on-time and to budget – see financial report in appendix 5.

10. Legacy

Since the end of the project two of the members of the orchestra have received leave for themselvesand their family to remain in the country. Other members continue to wait to hear how their situationwill be resolved.

The orchestra have continued to meet and develop since their performances at MIF 2009. They havebeen successful in securing funding from a range of sources to continue their development andprogression into 2010. The group are now fully constituted with a bank account, managementcommittee and board. There is hope that the group will be able to secure a building-based partnershipwith a Manchester music venue to increase their access to good-quality rehearsal and performance

space.

The profile that the performances at MIF gave the Beating Wing Orchestra has had significant positiveeffect and the group has been invited to perform at 10 different events across Autumn 2009 andSpring 2010, where they will be able to perform a mixture of new repertoire as well as musicdeveloped during the course of this project. . CAN are shortly to recruit for a worker to assist thegroup with ongoing administration and to ensure that they are able to respond to these performancerequests as well as be proactive in looking for further bookings. Individual members of the orchestrahave also gained new employment after the project including working with established internationalartists such as Nitin Sawhney.



Appendix 1: Project Management

Manchester International Festival is the world’s first festival of original, new work and special eventsand takes place biennially in Manchester, UK. The Festival launched in 2007 as an artist-led,commissioning festival presenting new works from across the spectrum of the performing arts, visualarts and popular culture. The second Manchester International Festival came to a close on Sunday 19July having presented three weeks of world premieres and special events by leading artists fromacross the world. New for 2009 was MIF Creative, a unique creative learning programme reaching

far across Greater Manchester and engaging local people in development and delivery of large-scaleand high-quality artistic work.

Community Arts North West (CAN) is a Manchester based, arts development organisation whosince 1978, have worked in partnership with communities, artists and agencies to encourage, create,and produce cultural programmes of work. CAN’s main priority is to create access to culturalproduction for people that are excluded or on the fringes of mainstream cultural resources. TheExodus project, produced by CAN, is a dynamic programme of participatory cultural productionworking with refugees and asylum seekers and local host communities. With a strong focus on crosscultural collaborative production, the Exodus programme brings together a great mix of people, artistsand communities - working creatively together in shared arena’s and drawing upon the rich heritageand experiences of Greater Manchester’s diverse communities.

www.can.co.uk

The development team for the project included:Simon Mellor General Director, Manchester International Festival

Cilla Baynes Creative Director, Community Arts North West

Nicki Dupuy Chair of Beating Wing Orchestra

Jen Cleary Head of Creative Learning, Manchester International Festival

Later in the process assistance also came from the following:

MIF team Jack Thompson, Cathy Gallagher, Nadja Coyne, SandraRoemermann, Devina Kumar, Rachel Robinson, Kate Mohin

CAN Team Ian Marsh, Segun Lee French, David Martin, Natasha Evans, FayeSalisbury, Erin McNeaney, Adelle Robinson

For this project, CAN managed the recruitment of new members of the orchestra, management oforchestra’s weekly rehearsals, delivery of the first workshop with Amadou and Mariam, and generalsupport for members of the orchestra. CAN also developed a partnership with Martin Harris Centre atthe University of Manchester leading to in-kind rehearsal space. MIF managed recruitment andmanagement of the lead artist, production and delivery of the development workshops, marketing andticketing of the events and management of the production of concerts during MIF 09.

Appendix 2: Biography, Amadou and Mariam

Amadou Bagayoko and Mariam Doumbia met at the Institute for the Young Blind in Bamako, Mali.In 1980 ,they got married, played their first concert together and started to make music as a band,recording albums such as such as Sou Ni Ti, Tje Ni Mousso and Wati. Despite being hugely popular inMali, it wasn’t until the duo’s collaboration with Manu Chao on 2005’s Dimanche à Bamaka that theywere propelled into the French charts. A prestigious Les Victoires De La Musique award (the Frenchequivalent of the Grammys), as well as two BBC Radio 3 awards followed and the success ofDimanche à Bamako gave Amadou and Mariam the opportunity to tour and meet and collaborate witha wide range of musicians. Damon Albarn and Somalian rapper K’Naan were just two, and bothfeature on their critically-acclaimed new album, Welcome To Mali.



Appendix 3: Biographies of the Beating Wing Orchestra members

Emmanuela Machozi Yogolelo is a vocalist from DR Congo now Living in Manchester. Emmanuelahas been singing from the age of 6 years in church choirs and other bands, back home. She is thefounder member and Lead vocalist of the popular Band ‘Testimony’ who perform a range of African

Gospel Music.

Pat Mackman is originally from DR Congo and now living in Manchester. Pat plays drum Kit andpercussion and various styles of music including Congolese style Reggae, Bossa Nova, Soukouss,Zougla, Zouk, Slow and Pop. He has played with various groups including ‘Africano Sound withWinnie Kibula’ He has taken part in the Exodus Refugee traineeship in 2006 and has taught andperformed nationally.

Nicki Dupuy is originally from Wales and plays Double Bass, Bass Guitar and Percussion. Based inManchester, Nicki has performed everything from Jazz, contemporary composed work, improvised,Blues, Folk, Rock, Indie, Reggae, Soul, Brazilian Styles and Classical. Nicki has also composed andproduced Sound Installations, Electronic / Dance music and pop, and has a strong interest in Brazilian

music. Nicki is also an experienced community music facilitator.

Serge Tebu came to this country from Cameroon in 2007 with only the love of music with which to findhis place in the community. As a composer and band leader he wanted to combine his skills with othermusicians from different musical influences to show that people from a variety of backgrounds canwork and play together. Serge plays piano and keyboard and is the founder member of Kokoriko anAfrican/Jazz/Blues fusion band based in Manchester.

Aisha Lourenco is a Brazilian percussionist with ten years experience as a performer, music teacher,and instrument-maker, working with children from the Favela’s of Recife-PE, Sao Paulo andPernambuco in North East Brazil. Aisha has performed in Maracatus, Afoxés and Samba groups inBrazil since the age of 14 years. She first came to the UK in 2006 and has since returned to

Manchester with the support of the Brazilian Ministry of Culture to work on her project “BuildingBridges”, which aims to develop links between Brazilian and UK community groups.

Zhou Juan is from Hulong in mainland China and sings Chinese Bel Canto which is like apopular/operatic folk tradition. She has been singing since a child and has won many competitions inChina.

Azzad Hassan is a Kurdish Saz player who has played with many groups in Iraq. His music ispredominantly Kurdish Folk and is a member of KAC (Kurdish Arts and Culture) based in Stockport.

Jaheda Choudhury is a member of international Hip Hop collective Ajah. Jaheda who is ofBangladeshi origin, is a rapper/singer /wordsmith with her own unique take on Hip Hop, rapping in

Bangla(Sylheti) and English.

Ismaeel Osman Sabir plays acoustic guitar and sings in a Kurdish contemporary folk style songs ofDiaspora and displacement. Ismaeel is of Iraqi Kurdish origin and has lived in Holland for 10 yearswhere he was involved in similar BWO multi cultural music groups. He was also involved in a numberof bands in Kurdistan (North Iraq)

Lis Murphy is classically trained and plays violin as well as sings in a wide range of styles includingBosnian, Brazilian, Jazz and classical. Lis spent 2 years in Croatia learning and performing Bosnianand Macedonian music for which we have taken her on, as a new member of BWO. She is a member



of Behar (Bosnian music band), toured the UK with Teo Krilic, plays fiddle and sings with Brazilianband Juba de Lea. She also sings classical with Canzonetta and Manchester chamber choir.

Appendix 4: Biography, Arun Ghosh

Arun Ghosh is an established musical director and composer for theatre and drama. His first workwas Storm by Lemn Sissay (Contact Theatre, 2002) and he has since worked on over 20 majorproductions. Conceived in Calcutta, bred in Bolton, matured in Manchester and now living in London,

Arun’s musical vocabulary and vision reflects his rich geographical heritage. Using the spirit andlanguage of jazz, with the sounds and styles of hip-hop, Indian classical and folk, western classical,rock, pop and avant-garde, Arun’s music is full of lyrical melodies and searching harmonies, down toearth directness and psychedelic ambient introspection.

Appendix 5: Financial Reporting

INCOME

Paul Hamlyn Foundation 20,000MIF 20,738

Community Arts North West 9,848Ticket income 9,097TOTAL 59,683

EXPENDITURE

Commission: Dec ‘08 – July ‘09Artist fees, travel, production costs 27,130Rehearsal Costs 3,728Sub total 30,858

Running: July 2009Artist fees, travel, production costs 9,685Artist Liaison 2,425

Technical 5,964General and box office 903Sub total 18,977

Fees (artists and support staff) 3,380Equipment / studio hire 859Access and participation 5,367Materials 242Subtotal 9,848

TOTAL 59,683



Appendix 6: Press

Title of Publication: The GuardianSubject of Article: Amadou & Mariam/Beating WingDate: 09/07/09Page: 1/1



Title of Publication: Manchester Evening NewsSubject of Article: Amadou & Mariam/Beating WingDate: 10/07/09Pages: 1



Title of Publication: Music OMHSubject of Article: Amadou & Mariam/Beating WingDate: 10/07/09Pages: 1

The sheer joy of Amadou & Mariam and The Beating Wing Orchestra

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

There is a truly memorable moment during this collaboration between Malian duo Amadou & Mariamand refugee/migrant collective The Beating Wing Orchestra.

Amadou is playing a delightfully evocative African guitar lick. Meanwhile, a Chinese bel canto operasinger is singing, there's a Kurdistani saz player in the background, and a Bangladeshi rapper is aboutto make her entrance.

And if that sounds like it should be a mess, it's to everybody's credit that it sounds like the mostobvious thing in the world.

This is a proper collaboration for MIF that has been worked on since the end of last year, and it shows.

And what becomes immediately clear is that this isn't some chance for a worthy bunch of musiciansbased in Manchester to play with international stars.

You get the sense that the sheer joyfulness works both ways: sure, the delight in the Bosnian fiddleplayer to play with Amadou & Mariam is completely evident, but A&M are also revelling in hearing theirearly songs (the majority are from before their breakthrough album Dimanche A Bamako)reinterpreted in new ways.

The music sounds warm, happy, vibrant.

Indeed, that truly memorable moment of cross-cultural collaboration mentioned above comes duringBWO's own composition for the festival.

The fact that they play it twice (once as an encore) is perhaps the only mis-step here, but you can't

blame them in a way: it fits effortlessly with Amadou & Mariam's music, and is the confirmation thatmusic can transcend borders, nationalities, races and colours.

Fantastic.

mif report amadou+mariam bwo paul hamlyn[1]

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