Southampton Music Hub had the privilege of working with local charity African Adventures Foundation this term on a very unique and special project.
Via African Adventures the music hub connected children from schools in Southampton with The Walk Centre in Nakuru, Kenya which is supported and maintained by African Adventures Foundation. Over Zoom the children and young people got together to plan out a choral exchange concert, choosing songs that they would like to perform for each other and songs they would love the other group to perform. The young people involved also asked lots of questions about what life was like in the other country and a variety of brilliant questions which we set about answering as part of this too.
On Tuesday 14 June all the Southampton based schools came together to celebrate the project at Turner Sims Concert Hall and took part in a filmed concert performance which also featured some fantastic video footage of The Walk Centre Choir performing and answering the questions that were originally posed.
Participating Southampton schools are now going to start to help with fundraising for their new friends in Nakuru Kenya. A final video of this performance and the footage from our partner school will be available for participants friends and family to watch after making a small donation to African Adventures Foundation.
Nia Collins, Partnerships Manager, says:
“We are looking forward to getting some of our young people back together on a Zoom call with our counterparts in Kenya afterwards to see what they all thought of their performances and to continue to grow the connections between us.”
A participant says:
“ I loved hearing the children from Africa sing because it made me feel so happy. It was really great being able to do a concert with children from another country. I would like to do more of that.”
Kath Page, Hub Lead, says:
“This has been such an amazing project to be a part of, designed and led by the children themselves. This concert is really the tip of the iceberg and it will be fascinating to see what kind of music the children would like to perform in the future – their voices will be paramount in shaping the music hub offer in the future.”
Rachel Northover, Head of fundraising at African Adventures Foundation, says:
“African Adventures Foundation was delighted to collaborate with Southampton Music Hub on this fantastic event to celebrate cultural exchange and the power of music to connect children from different backgrounds. It was really special to see the enthusiasm and efforts of the pupils from the various schools involved, and they created an amazing atmosphere for the choral exchange. This has been an exciting project for African Adventures Foundation to be involved in and we are keen to maintain a connection with the schools to continue the exchange that has been initiated.”
