Urban Opera Presents…The Message

Overview

Funded by Scottish Arts Council’s Youth Music Initiative, ‘Urban Opera Presents…The Message’ was a six month project designed and managed by Urban Learning Space.

Running from July to December 2007, the aim of this project was to develop a range of music and leadership skills within artists aged 16-25yrs currently not earning a full time living from their skill base, by engaging on a journey of exploration and collaboration.

This creative personal development programme wanted to enable the artists to explore a number of music making activities which would equip them with the skills required to write and stage their own urban music performance with the support of a specialist team. Using opera as a stimulus, the crew were encouraged to explore a completely different genre inspiring them to write, compose and produce.

Process

An initial period of marketing led to a week of auditions and interviews, where the diverse crew of vocalists, emcees, musicians and dancers were selected to form the final crew of fifteen artists.

Based at the Digital Media Academy at 100 Brand Street, Govan, Glasgow, the project ran weekly evening sessions. The three hour workshops were delivered in three phases with content which included the following; music analysis, lyric writing and understanding song structure, creating arrangements, understanding rhythm, digital production skills in Garageband and Logic audio software, vocal improvisation and performance skills.

In addition to the above core programme, a series of master classes were provided by guest tutors including; ‘An Exploration of Characters and Themes’ in Puccini’s La Boheme from Lissa Lorenzo at Scottish Opera, ‘Lyrically Motivated Movement’ from London’s Jonzi D Productions and finally ‘A Case Study in Modern Adaptations of La Boheme’ from Scottish Baritone Frazer Scott. The project culminated in a very successful performance at ABC2, 300 Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow on Thursday 6th December.

Future Developments

Co-funded by Youth Music Initiative and in partnership with the Six Cities Design Festival team, ‘The Message’ performance will be going on tour between July and September 2008. While we are offer an opportunity in continued professional development in tour setup and mentoring to the original crew, an exciting series of supporting workshops will be available for local young people in Inverness, Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh, Stirling and Glasgow.