Music Connects in Herefordshire

We have just returned from our second Music Connects residential, a weekend at Jamie's Farm in the hills of Herefordshire.

Music Connects is a project that brings young people from all backgrounds together to create an original piece of music. Half our participants have lived mostly or entirely in the UK and have English as a native language; half have been displaced from their homes and are starting new lives here.

We can't say it enough - this is not a project where one group is asked along to "help" the other. Indeed, we work very hard to take the division away as soon as possible. The challenge here is for everyone to find a way to use the different languages, life experiences and cultural backgrounds to come together and create a song with music, lyrics and instruments to reflect every person present. And bearing in mind that we had people from 8 very different countries this time, and with all the languages between them, that was no small feat.

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