Beating Wing Orchestra with Amadou & Mariam at Manchester International Festival 2009

Tue 7 & Wed 8 July 2009
Pavilion Theatre, Albert Square

Click here for more information about the Beating Wing and Amadou & Mariam collaboration at this year's Manchester International Festival.

Click here to view Guardian.co.uk slideshow of Beating Wing and Amadou & Mariam rehearsals

The Beating Wing Orchestra (BWO) is a unique, musically diverse orchestra comprising musicians from Greater Manchester's Refugee communities and other culturally diverse musicians from the region.

Its main aim is to experiment, play, create and perform challenging new music that draws on a global music vocabulary. BWO was brought together by CAN in January 2007 through its Exodus Live music project, to create and perform a new international composition commissioned by Manchester International Festival (MIF) as part of their original and new works festival.

The Palestinian singer/composer Reem Kelani was engaged as the artist/composer. She used collaborative workshop methods to develop the final 30-minute piece of music Paradise in Strangers, which was performed at Exodus Live on Sunday 8 July at the Manchester Academy as part of the Manchester International Festival.

The performance was a sell-out and gained critical acclaim, including a five-star review in the Manchester Metro News. The project created opportunities to learn and perform, to form artistic collaborations with cultural forms from communities whose paths rarely cross, and also gave much-needed exposure to musicians from under-represented cultures resident in the region.

In partnership with CAN, the Beating Wing Orchestra has once again been commissioned by MIF to perform a new work for the July 2009 festival with International Artists Amadou and Mariam, a Malian music partnership who have achieved global success by combining West African influences with rhythm and blues. They have been working with BWO since December on a collaboration which will be performed over two nights in the Pavilion in Albert Square in Manchester.

Development of The Beating Wing Orchestra

CAN is also working with the orchestra to:

• Develop the group as a part-time, independent company that is active throughout the year

• Maximise the creative potential of this unique forum for the development of new musical ideas, skills, and inspiration

• Develop and perform original and imaginative music

• Experiment and develop new artistic music vocabulary, bringing together diverse musical cultures in a meaningful way

• Develop the Orchestra’s profile

• Collaborate with other music partners

• Explore professional development opportunities for Orchestra members

Beating Wing Orchestra band members

Arun Ghosh
Arun Ghosh is a British-Asian clarinettist, composer and music educator. Conceived in Calcutta, bred in Bolton, matured in Manchester and living in London, Arun's musical vocabulary and vision reflects his rich geographical heritage. Using the spirit and language 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 to earth directness and psychedelic ambient introspection. His Indo-Jazz sextet play original music of South Asian origin with a contemporary jazz attitude, rocking urban beats and the passion of punk. Sweet and timeless melodies give birth to soaring improvisations and raag explorations, driven by a heady mix of dub-reggae bass, tabla trickery and ferocious drum explosions. His critically acclaimed recent album Northern Namaste is now available online www.camoci.co.uk/arunghosh/info.html
www.myspace.com/arunghosh

Emmanuela Macholi Yogolelo
Emmanuela Machozi Yogolelo is a vocalist from DR Congo now Living in Manchester. Emmanuela has been singing from the age of 6 years in church choirs and other bands, back home. She is the founder member and Lead vocalist of the popular African Gospel band, Testimony.

Pat (Lugemba) Mackman
Originally from DR Congo now living in Manchester, Pat plays drum kit and percussion, various styles of Congolese music, Reggae, Bossa Nova, Rumba, Zouk, Slow and Pop. He has played with many groups including Africano Sound with Winnie Kibula. Pat took part in the Exodus Refugee traineeship in 2006 and has taught and performed nationally.
www.myspace.com/patmackman

Nicki Dupuy
Nicki Dupuy, from Manchester, plays double bass, bass guitar and percussion. Based in Manchester, Nicki has performed everything from Jazz, contemporary composed work, improvised music, Blues, Folk, Rock, Indie, Reggae, Soul, Brazilian Styles and Classical. She has also composed and produced sound Installations, Electronic / Dance music and Pop, and has a strong interest in Brazilian music. Nicki has researched and written about the contemporary popular music scene in the northeast of Brazil and is also an experienced community music facilitator.

Serge Tebu
Serge Tebu Coming to this country from Cameroon in 2007, Serge Tebu had only the love of music with which to find his place in the community. As a composer and band leader he wanted to combine his skill and experience with other musicians from different musical influences who each have a desire to show that people from a variety of backgrounds can work and play together. Serge plays piano and keyboard and is the founder member of Kokoriko an African/Jazz/Blues fusion band based in Manchester. Serge plays in a variety of styles.
www.myspace.com/sergetebu

Aisha Lourenco
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 and Pernambuco in North East Brazil. Aisha has performed in Maracatus, Afoxés and Samba groups from Recife-PE, in Brazil since the age of 14 years. Aisha 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 “Building Bridges”, which aims to develop links between Brazilian and UK community groups. Aisha also plays with the Manchester based Bloco Novo (Brazilian/world music band) and Maracatus Juba do Leao. Her music influences are Brazilian, Latin, African and other World music.
www.myspace.com/aishaijexa

Zhou Juan
Zhou Juan is from Hunan province in mainland China. She is a highly skilled, knowledgeable and enthusiastic singing teacher and Chinese martial arts instructor. She has 20 years experience of successfully teaching these arts.She won many prizes in singing competitions in China and was awarded first prize in Tai Chi competitions three times.She began studying singing and Chinese martial arts as a young child and later studied with famous vocal professors and Tai Chi masters. Her first singing teacher was her mother who was an actress with the local Folk Ensemble and from 5 years old she performed Chinese opera on stage. Later she studied Bel Canto (17th century Italian "beautiful singing") with vocal professor Li of the distinguished Liaoning Opera in China. Another of her tutors was professor of the prestigious China Oriental Song & Dance Ensemble in Beijing.

Jaheda Choudhury
Jaheda Choudhury is a member of international Hip Hop collective Ajah. Jaheda who is of Bangladeshi heritage, is a rapper/singer /wordsmith with her own unique take on Hip Hop, rapping in Bangla (Sylheti) and English.
www.myspace.com/ajahuk

Ismaeel Osman Sabir
Ismaeel Osman Sabir plays acoustic guitar, saz and sings in a Kurdish contemporary folk style, songs of nostalgia and love. Ismaeel is of Iraqi Kurdish origin and has lived in Holland for 15 years where he was involved in multi cultural music groups, that performed live on radio and TV. He has also been involved in a number of bands in Kurdistan.

Lis Murphy
Classically trained, Lis plays violin and sings in a wide range of styles including Bosnian, Brazilian, Jazz and classical. Lis spent 2 years in Croatia learning and performing Bosnian and Macedonian music. She is a member of the Bosnian music band Behar, has toured the UK with Teo Krilic, and also plays fiddle and sings with Brazilian band Juba de Lea. Lis also sings classical music with Canzonetta and Manchester chamber choir.
www.myspace.com/beharmusic

For more information or enquiries about the Beating Wing Orchestra and Exodus Live, contact CAN on 0161 234 2975, cilla@can.uk.com