This year’s Musica festival featured seven events, held from 3-9 March.
Polyphonic:
We were delighted to see an audience of students and the public join us to celebrate the programme featuring predominantly women, non binary and gender diverse composers and musicians.
The concert was well very received with enthusiastic applause after each work. One concertgoer commented to the organisers afterwards that he had absolutely loved it all – a very heartwarming interaction!
As the administrative side of Polyphonic gains traction and confidence year by year, we are excited to see the magnitude to which this concert and collaboration can grow and continue to curate a platform for musicians to be celebrated.
Lunchtime concert:
The Musica lunchtime concert was a sure success. It was great to get to share some music that doesn’t get performed much, and I really enjoyed researching music to programme. This concert also provided opportunities to performers who hadn’t yet performed in a lunchtime concert, and encouraged ensemble music-making.
MU music industry talk:
We held a presentation about musicians’ rights in the workforce, partially focusing on gender-related rights issues, and discussing the role of musicians’ unions in the progression and upkeep of fair EDI treatment in the industry. The talk was given by Dr Diljeet Bhachu, who is the EDI officer for the MU’s office in the North West. The presentation was highly informative and helpful, packing in a large amount of detail into an hour, and the audience was engrossed by the topics that were raised, leading to an interesting Q&A section at the end of the talk, in which particular concerns about musicians’ rights were raised by the student and staff body alike. After the event, the participants were left feeling more confident about their careers and about standing up for themselves in various situations related to gender and workers’ rights.
Symposium:
The symposium is a long-standing aspect of the Musica festival. It involves inviting external guests to speak on particular topics with a departmental or student host, taking place in the music department’s usual Thursday research forum slot.
This year, the committee chose to hold a panel discussion with four guest speakers from various background and areas of the music industry. The topic of discussion was ‘Meritocracy and gender in the music industry’. The panel was hosted by a PhD student at the university’s music department, Morgan Hale. The panel of guests included Emma Johnson (jazz saxophonist and composer), Maracuya (DJ and member of group ‘Not Bad for a Girl’), Paulette Bayley (violinist and EDI officer of the Hallé), and Cee Haines (composer and multimedia artist). The event sparked extremely interesting topics of discussion and was very well attended and received.
Vocal concert:
The vocal concert showcased a variety of vocal music by women artists, from Norah Jones to Amy Beach, classical and jazz, large and small ensembles. The performance standard was excellent and efforts were made to make sure most of the performers were women or gender diverse, including students who had not previously been given a chance to perform in such concerts.
Hera Japanese concert:
The group ‘Hera’ approached us with a performance of their tour – On an Endless Road – Itō Noe and the Women Composers of Her Time. The performance consisted of panel discussions about the composers and muse of Francesca Le Lohé (an ex-University of Manchester student who wrote the main piece), Itō Noe, and performances of women composers from Japan who lived and wrote in the same time period. The head of performance in the music faculty described the concert as the best concert the department has seen in six years. The reception was great, with excellent feedback and leading to interesting discussions between students and departmental staff about this type of concert and some of the topics raised.
Jazz Jam:
The jazz jam was a big success, with a significant turnout and an overall good vibe. Following a well received opening set from the Musica collective house band, the jam saw a variety of performers take to the stage and showcased some fantastic woman and gender diverse musicians!
Next year’s Musica committee has recently been chosen, and our handover meeting is due to take place later this month. The chair of the committee will be Amy Browne, who has had experience in the committee this year as advertising manager. Some ideas for events have been discussed, but specifics remain undecided and the majority of organisation of next year’s festival will occur over the summer and autumn term. This year’s festival set a renewed, ambitious precedent for Musica in the years to come, and we are extremely excited for the upcoming progressions that can be achieved for students and the community.