Our latest Future Sound video has just dropped, so have a watch right now! It features saxophonist, composer and bandleader Emma Johnson, who led the project, along with students from Co-op Academy North Manchester and musicians Richard Jones, Alex Robinson, Nishla Smith, Nick Williams and Aaron Wood.
It’s our first Future Sound project in Manchester, and the young people build their composition and songwriting skills, as well as playing together in a band, culminating in a performance at The Yard venue in the city. Future Sound offers students the chance to play alongside professional musicians and get a flavour of what it’s like to work in the industry – opportunities that they have never had the chance to explore before.
Emma Johnson says:
“For me, the highlight of this project has just been getting to bring music and this experience into school and to work with these young people. When I was starting out in music, not too far from here, the opportunity to actually feel like I could be a musician and be around professional musicians and that doing what we do as a career wasn’t something that I was aware of. And so, really, for me, this has been about showing these young people that it is possible.”
The young musicians who took part described how Future Sound had improved their confidence in collaborating as well as building their resilience, through learning to accept mistakes and take feedback to improve.
Two of the students said:
“I enjoyed being free to make music, and actually producing music, and singing in the performance.”
and
“What I feel like I can do more than I could before is share my creativity with other people. And I’m not as afraid of being told that’s not very good, and stuff like that, as I used to be.”
Emma has just kicked off our second Manchester project, this time alongside students from Co-op Academy Manchester. Past Future Sound projects in London have been led by Sheila Maurice-Grey and Kokoroko; Cassie Kinoshi and SEED; Jas Kayser and Chums; Plumm; and Jonny Enser and Matters Unknown/Matt Davies; with performances at award-winning jazz venue Church of Sound.
You can learn more about Future Sound here or donate to support upcoming projects here.
Videography by Clive Hunte.