40 Wards 10 Districts 10 Composers 40 Community Groups
10 Local Performances 1 Vinyl Record
for-Wards (2014 – 2018) is an ambitious citywide music project that celebrated my hometown of Birmingham; a musical ode to Birmingham involving the commissioning of 9 other Brummie (born and bred or adopted) composers to help me co-create new music with 40 community groups about one of the city’s 10 constituencies. Together we created a cultural and musical sound map of the UK’s incredibly diverse second city. All the composers had strong Brummie connections: Justin K Broadrick, Xhosa Cole, Simon Duggal, Grandmaster Gareth, Scott Johannsson, Annie Mahtani, Pram, Percy Pursglove & Pøgman.
for-Wards was immensely supported by 9 Birmingham arts and culture institutions who helped me select the 9 other composers and working with the community groups. Deep gratitude to Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, Midlands Arts Centre, Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, Kalaboration, Flatpack Projects, Hare & Hounds, Access to Music, capsule and Wassifa.
The 10 new works were performed in site-specific, non concert hall spaces around the city, presented where the founds sounds and communities were located.