Music in the West Midlands Coventry City of Culture 2021-22 and Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games Festival

Music in the West Midlands

As Coventry concludes its term as UK City of Culture, Clare Stevens considers the impact and legacy of its musical programme and looks forward to Birmingham’s Commonwealth Games Festival

Read our previous feature to learn more about Harrison Birtwistle. Costumes by Daniel Lismore from the production of The Mask of Orpheus by Harrison Birtwistle are currently on display at the Herbert Art Gallery and Museum in Coventry

Left: Images of Coventry City of Culture Photos clockwise from top left: Five Six Photography; Coventry CoC21; Clare Stevens; Toyin Dawudu Coventry – City of Culture 2021–22

When the official programme for Coventry’s year as UK City of Culture came to an end in May, early analysis revealed that 389,705 tickets had been issued for live events, with a further estimated audience of 136,916 attending unticketed live events across the city. The online audience, so important for the events affected by lockdown, is still growing and is currently estimated at over 516,000 for events created by the Coventry City of Culture Trust and its partners. (The results excluded the Public Art programme, participation and workshop activity figures, and the creative programme funded by the Trust but delivered by partner organisations, which will be reported in the final evaluation, due in 2024.)

Coventry was crowned as the third UK City of Culture in December 2017, but the pandemic meant that events originally scheduled to run from January 2021 did not start until May. The competition is run every four years by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, but is not directly supported by government funding; the idea is that shining a spotlight on a city or region will foster partnerships and encourage investment through business initiatives, arts sponsorship and tourism. Coventry secured more than £172m of direct investment to support the programme of events, the activities of the Trust, and a major upgrade programme of the city’s public realm and cultural assets.

Although the year was punctuated by major national events such as the Turner Prize taking place in Coventry, the city put ‘co-creation’ at the centre of its programme, valuing local stories and the latent creativity across the city. This deeply rooted way of working, recently presented as ‘The Coventry Model’, delivered a range of both intimate events and high impact activities to deliver long-lasting social value. Embedding engagement at a hyper-local level, it saw city communities including faith groups, community centres, libraries, schools, community radio stations, the police, and local arts organisations all helping to shape and design the creative programme.

The music programme included the UK’s first ever exhibition devoted solely to the 2 Tone sound, which originated in Coventry’s thriving music scene of the 1970s. The legendary 2 Tone record label was founded in 1979 by Jerry Dammers of The Specials; alongside the iconic tunes there was a desire to transcend and defuse racial tensions in Britain at that time. The exhibition took place at the Herbert Art Gallery and Museum in the centre of the city, augmenting its existing permanent displays on Coventry’s musical life by delving more deeply into the world of 2 Tone. It was put together in partnership with the independent Coventry Music Museum, founded in 2013 and run as a labour of love by local music historian and journalist Pete Chambers, his wife Julie and a team of volunteers. Chambers is keen to stress that although 2 Tone is its USP, 55% of the museum is devoted to non-ska related displays, looking at music from Rugby, Leamington, Nuneaton, Bedworth and even Birmingham as well as Coventry.

Asked if the City of Culture events have benefited the Music Museum, Chambers says the partnership with the Herbert worked perfectly, with most visitors attending both venues. ‘The Specials were in the city, which was great; we got on the telly a few times and I was advisory editor for a 2 Tone magazine. It all helped to raise awareness of Coventry’s unique musical identity, so that was an obvious case of things improving for us.’

New public spaces created for City of Culture included the Assembly Festival Garden, which has hosted concerts, circus, comedy, acts such as The Choir of Man and the Soweto Gospel Choir, musicals and children’s shows. It features the double-decker Queen of Flanders spiegeltent, billed as the largest of its kind in the world. ‘There have been some great gigs at

Above left: Celebrating 2-Tone at Coventry Music Museum

Above right: Choir of Man the Assembly Festival Garden, that felt – in the nicest possible way – like you weren’t in Coventry at all,’ says Chambers. ‘We also had the BBC Big Weekends of Live Music bookending the year, Radio 2 in 2021 and Radio 1 this year, and they involved local artists. Terry Hall of The Specials programmed some interesting gigs at the cathedral and one of our other main venues, the HMV Empire, was refurbished and has hosted some big names.

‘It’s hard to tell how much of the activity was directly due to City of Culture,’ he adds, ‘but we should be able to build on the interest there has been as a result of the extra events. I’d like to think there will be a legacy, and there are some encouraging signs; for example we’re working on establishing an annual 2 Tone Day.’

Chambers is closely involved with the Godiva Festival, which takes place in the War Memorial Park on the first weekend of September. ‘It used to be Europe’s biggest free festival and it’s still very cheap though no longer free. It’s always a good event and it will be interesting to see if it attracts more people this year, when the headliners are The Libertines.’

A highlight of the City of Culture music programme was the New Music Biennial (NMB) on 22–24 April, presented in partnership with PRS Foundation, Southbank Centre in London, BBC Radio 3 and NMC Recordings, with support from Arts Council England, Arts Council of Northern Ireland and Paul Hamlyn Foundation. Launched in 2012 as New Music 20×12, part of the Cultural Olympiad programme, the festival creates a world-class programme of commissions. This year it took place in three venues a short walk from one another: Coventry Cathedral, the historic Drapers Hall, and the HMV Empire. Each hour-long event consisted of a performance of a 15-minute piece, followed by a Q&A with the composer or one of the artists involved, and then a second performance of the same piece, giving the audience a greater appreciation of the work and the artistic intention behind it. (The programme will be reprised in the same format at the Southbank Centre 1–3 July.)

‘To celebrate the ten-year anniversary of NMB we decided to include ten new pieces that were applied for by an open call, and ten existing pieces that were selected by a panel,’ explains Elizabeth Sills, Grants and Programmes Manager for the PRS Foundation. ‘It was great to hear the existing pieces again, sometimes with different performers or in different guises.

‘For example there was Jason Yarde’s SKIP, DASH, FLOW, which was inspired by the Olympics and full of amazing rhythms, and Illusions, a multimedia piece by Philip Venables and David Hoyle with a powerful political message, that was written for the London Sinfonietta to perform immediately after the 2015 General Election. Hearing it again in 2022, it was clear how relevant it still is.’

The new works included Towards Renewal, composed by Philip Herbert for the BBC Concert Orchestra; Breathlines by Toby Young, commissioned by the Armonico Consort and featuring saxophonist Amy Dickson in an exploration of the importance of breath, newly appreciated by us all in the light of COVID-19; The Crossing, created by sitarist Roopa Panesar with jazz pianist Al MacSween for Opera North; From the Vestry, a shifting, disorientating vision of club music commissioned by event producers Serious and performed by South London vocalist and DJ Coby Sey; Yazz Ahmed’s surround-sound sonic artwork The Moon Has Become; and It for vocal ensemble, electronics & violin by Rakhi Singh, Vessel & NYX Electronic Drone Choir.

‘It was wonderful to have the National Youth Orchestra, National Youth Brass Band and National Youth Choir involved in various pieces this year,’ says Sills. ‘Wonderbrass, which performed the Jason Yarde piece, also includes some young players. NMB is a Keychange Pledge signatory festival, so we achieved gender equality across composer programming which was not a struggle and greatly benefits all involved – we hope this encourages more festivals and programmers to go further.’

NMB always attracts a lot of attention from the contemporary classical music world and social media posts popped up over the weekend from composers, performers and programmers who had never been to Coventry before and were impressed by their discoveries. But Sills says the festival was well supported by locals too.

‘The events were free but ticketed, and a lot sold out in advance, which is pretty impressive. Walking through town we could hear local people talking about the biennial. Audience numbers were very high for almost everything; you saw the same people walking around and turning up at different performances, and they were keen to stay around for the interviews and repeat performances. The cathedral and Drapers’ Hall were really stunning venues, and we had a few pieces that involved visuals which worked really well at the HMV Empire. We had wonderful teams working in these venues and they were encouraging local people to come in and see the performances. It was great to see a new music festival bringing in that many people, and it’s a real legacy for the city I hope.’

It could be argued that Coventry Cathedral, the city’s best-known venue, saved the best until last, celebrating the 60th anniversary of its consecration with a special service on 25 May where the music included pieces performed at the Consecration in 1962 as well as part of a new Coventry Missa Brevis by Matthew Martin.

Earlier in the year, three chilly January evenings had seen performances of Nitin Sawhney’s Ghosts in the Ruins, a response to Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem (famously premiered in the new cathedral in May 1962) that combined choral music, poetry and soundscapes, taking audiences on a physical journey between the new cathedral and the ruins of the original site, retelling the history of the space and exploring themes of reconciliation and sanctuary that characterise the city.

Coventry Cathedral Choir took centre stage in the piece, joined by singers from Spires Music and The Choir With No Name, conducted by the cathedral’s Director of Music, Canadian organist Rachel Mahon. She has only been in post since 2020 so the City of Culture programme was already determined when she arrived, and her task was to work out how to make it happen, in the middle of the pandemic.

‘It has been a very busy year for the choir, which has been challenging as like all choirs we’ve had to rebuild after the hiatus when we were not allowed to sing together, and that has a particularly devastating effect on cathedral choirs that include young choristers, who learn from one another by osmosis in a tradition that until COVID-19 came along had been unbroken,’ she says. ‘Recruiting new choristers has also been difficult.

‘But City of Culture spurred us to get back in action quickly; we’ve done some performances that we would not normally have done, forged new partnerships and found new audiences. And it’s been an excellent platform for launching our £1 million diamond jubilee appeal for the restoration of our Harrison and Harrison pipe organ, considered to be of outstanding national significance.’

coventry2021.co.uk newmusicbiennial.co.uk coventrycathedral.org.uk

Below left: Symphonic Sessions with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra at Hockey Social Club Photo: Hannah Fathers

Below right: Ghosts in the Ruins at Coventry Cathedral Photo: FiveSix Photography

Below: Symphony Hall and the new Birmingham Central Library, Centenary Square, Birmingham Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games Festival

At the end of May Bradford was named as UK City of Culture for 2025, but the spotlight remains on the West Midlands for the next few months, as Birmingham prepares to host the Commonwealth Games, from 28 July – 8 August. Underpinned by the core values of humanity, equality and destiny, the games aim to unite the Commonwealth family through a glorious festival of sport. Often referred to as the ‘Friendly Games’, the event is renowned for inspiring athletes to compete in the spirit of friendship and fair play.

Alongside the sporting activities and beyond to the end of September runs the Birmingham 2022 Festival, a £12 million cultural celebration, supported by a range of funders with the aim of animating the entire West Midlands with ambitious creative works. Major support has been dedicated by Arts Council England and the National Lottery Heritage Fund plus Spirit of 2012, Birmingham City Council and national Trusts & Foundations such as the Paul Hamlyn Foundation.

Birmingham 2022 is the biggest celebration of creativity ever in the region and one of the largest ever Commonwealth Games cultural programmes. The plan was simple, say the organisers: clearly lay out the opportunity, listen intently to the response, and curate as much of what was proposed back into a festival that was so free, and so publicly available, that it would be positively disruptive! It will include the opening and closing ceremonies for the games, and youth programmes to enable children and young people to develop new skills. The aim is that once the official programme concludes, the region’s vibrant cultural life will continue to thrive.

Asked about the likely impact of the festival on musical life in the region, Stephen Maddock, chief executive of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra said: ‘This is a very wide-ranging festival, with events on every scale from the spectacular Opening Ceremony (which will feature a lot of music alongside dance, theatre and spectacle) to the smaller grass-roots activities in Birmingham’s neighbourhoods.

‘The festival is providing lots of work for Birmingham-based artists and arts organisations, which is very welcome at this time. It has also galvanized the completion of many city centre building projects, which bodes well for audience access to the city centre once the games are over.

‘In terms of audience engagement it is probably too soon to tell, but we certainly hope that the exposure / spotlight on Birmingham this summer will be to the benefit of everyone working in the music sector here. We plan to put on a great show!

Birmingham2022.com/festival cbso.co.uk bradford2025.co.uk