Keen punters bidding for the Antony Gormley, the Grayson Perry, the Jonathan Yeo at our Music in the Ville auction last week……
And under the baton of auctioneer extraordinaire, John Plews, bid they did! As a result we ended up by raising a very satisfactory number of thousands to ensure that Music in the Ville can continue to run its weekly workshops and its monthly open mic sessions on the wings in Pentonville prison.
But before we got down to the auction cellist Kate Startt, one of Music in the Ville’s lead tutors, and Emma Dogliani, the charity’s founder and director, gave us a little taste of what goes on in those sessions. As Kate says, Dream a Little Dream of Me can often turn into a singalong – while no one can resist a bit of full blown operatic aria!
Musical entertainment over, Emma talked about the charity and how she had come to found it. Then she played some very moving clips from both prisoners and staff about the sessions: how hugely important they were to everyone, creating meaningful links between the staff and the inmates as they perform together, lifting everyone’s mood, making space for creativity and self expression in that very arid environment, giving prisoners inspiration to sing or write music or songs in their cells for the next session – and more…
If you were not with us but would still like to add your support you can do so on the charity’s Just Giving page here.
With thanks to Andy Aitchison for the images above and below – and also for donating a first copy of his hot-off-the-press new book (Incarcerated – Contemporary Photography from a Victorian Prison) which then sold for a tidy sum!
Standing Bear by Charles Williams who, as it turned out, was actually sitting in a chair….
The Islington Festival is all but upon us!
Yes, in just ten days time this year’s Islington Festival will be getting underway in St Mary’s Upper Street with Poems of love and loss with pieces by Ernest Chausson, Gustav Mahler and Franz Schubert.
Hot on its heels come art exhibitions, folklore, chamber concerts, coffee concerts, swing dancing, jazz, cello and piano recitals, yoga and harp and a grand finale two weeks later in Christ Church Highbury with Beethoven, Tolstoy and Janáček. How can you wait?…..
For the full details and to book tickets go to the What’s On page of their site.
Free on Sunday?
By the Pond: Songs of Swimming and Sunshine – Under the Same Sun
If you are free Ellen Wilkinson (who you have heard play her oboe here) and her friend singer Harriet Cameron are performing at County Hall at 6pm – songs inspired by the Hampstead swimming ponds. The concert is free but you can reserve a spot here.
Salon Music autumn programme
And in the next post….. full details of our autumn programme.
Kicking off on September 8th with The Aulus and the Lyre with Hugh Webb and Melinda Maxwell. See here for more details and to book.
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