Serious launches BT River of Music
1st June 2012
BT River of Music, part of the London 2012 Festival, will take place over the weekend of 21-22 July.
Produced by Serious, and timed to take place a week before the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games, BT River of Music is a gathering of many types of world music, with acts representing all 205 Olympic and Paralympic nations taking part at this year's competitions. The free two-day event will be the start of celebrations before the sporting events follow.
Participants in River of Music from Saxophone Massive
Music will take place at stages, named after each continent, located at landmark sites along the River Thames, with each stage hosting music from its respective region. The stages will be situated at London Pleasure Gardens (Africa), Battersea Park (Asia), Trafalgar Square (Europe), Somerset House (Europe), the Tower of London (the Americas), and Greenwich Old Royal Naval College (Oceania).
The event will allow audiences to enjoy music from established, award winning and emerging artists from across the globe.
PHF funding has enabled Serious to engage with partner organisations Celtic Connections, Norfolk and Norwich Festival, Artsdepot and Lighthouse Poole to bring together local communities with artists to create and perform music together. Over 1000 people of all ages have taken part regionally, with many of them appearing at the London events:
- On the Asia stage in Battersea Park, young Scottish musicians will join a host of Indian and Celtic musicians with world tabla master Zakir Hussain.
- In Greenwich Park, on the Oceania stage, under the musical direction of Howard Moody, singers from the South West will perform Australian born Sonia Slany's new arrangements of the Nick Cave classics: Carry Me, Into My Arms, There She Goes My Beautiful World.
- Members of artsdepot's Roots and Wings refugee and asylum-seeker youth group will make an appearance with enchanting vocalist Amira from Sarajevo and musicians from across the Balkan states.
- And at Somerset House, 200 saxophonists of all ages and abilities will perform Andy Sheppard's Saxophone Massive. This large-scale project designed for public spaces, opened the 2011 Norfolk and Norwich Festival with local musicians aged 7 to 77 taking part.
Claire Whitaker, Director of Serious, said: "BT River of Music will be an incredible celebration of world-class music the weekend before the Olympic and Paralympic Games. We will be working with some of the most exciting artists from across the world, the very best of emerging British based talent and staging some unique artistic collaborations with young people and communities performing with major stars during the weekend. This will be a once in a lifetime experience not to be missed and a fabulous occasion for music lovers looking to join the Olympic party!"
Serious is a creative production company specialising in the production of jazz, international and contemporary music. In 2010, the Arts programme awarded Serious £150,000 to help develop the projects for BT River of Music, part of the London 2012 Festival. It is also supported by the Olympic Lottery Distributor and Arts Council England. Serious' director, Claire Whittaker, is also an advisor to the PHF Arts Programme Committee.
Links:
BT River of Music
Serious
PHF Arts programme
BT River of Music is a spectacular weekend of free music from across the 205 Olympic and Paralympic nations, presented at iconic sites along the River Thames on 21 and 22 July 2012. BT River of Music is part of the London 2012 Festival. It is supported by National Lottery funds through the Olympic Lottery Distributor, Arts Council England and is produced by Serious with additional funding support from Paul Hamlyn Foundation.
