Original music created by Eastbourne composers for a unique fundraiser

Eastbourne composers Melody Woodham, Tim Laverack and Clive Whitburn have created The Composers Network to bring the music of living composers to new audiences.

The network’s first concert is at The Birley Centre on Saturday February 23; Without Borders - An Evening With The Modulus String Quartet and The New Network Singers.

They promise beautiful strings and singing; Tim has written a piece to capture the music of the choir and quartet live, and do “amazing things with it electronically.”

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

As well as entertaining, the concert has a serious purpose. Tim, Melody and Clive were “really affected” by the tragic stories of people fleeing their homelands over recent years.

Clive said: “So many people risk their lives to escape war and oppression across the world. It’s a global issue and the numbers are staggering: Medicin Sans Frontieres gives the figures as; 65 million displaced people around the world, 22.5 million refugees worldwide, 20 people forcibly displaced every minute. It’s a huge challenge to us all and it seems that Governments are not stepping up to the plate.

“Composers Network decided that there were several things we could do to help, albeit in a very small way. Firstly, one thing music does really well is to communicate. So, Without Borders was conceived to explore some of the issues around refugees and migrants.”

Clive has set a poem by Dalal Al Mrchid who fled with her young family from Aleppo at the height of the war in Syria. Tim has written a Requiem For A Boy On A Beach, while Melody has set a poem which shares what it’s like to be an immigrant.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

The concert is fundraising for charity Migrant Help; the composers have secured a donation of £1000 already, and hope if the concert sells out, much more will be raised.

Their event includes beautiful music by eight living composers, including six world premieres. Most will be new to the audience, although many video gamers and classic FM listeners will recognise music of BAFTA award winning, and Classic FM presenter, Jessica Curry. Jessica will also be at the concert.

Tickets, £12 adults, £8 under 16s available from www.melodywoodham.com.