Blow your trumpet

Making music with refugees Paul MacAlindin of the Glasgow Barons introduces their award-winning Musicians in Exile project

Photo: Brian Hartley

The Glasgow Barons is based in Govan, Scotland, an area of multiple deprivation. We run a variety of projects that open up musical experiences to people living there who otherwise wouldn’t have the opportunity to access them.

Our Musicians in Exile project provides instruments, rehearsal space, travel expenses and gig opportunities to asylum seekers. The musicians who take part in the project range from gifted amateurs to professionals, and are mostly from Iran. They have their own group, Musicians in Exile Persia and play on Middle Eastern instruments. Our Global Group, currently made up of El Salvadorians, Kurds and Iranians, performs pop music.

Glasgow has a thorough network of refugee and asylum support, so knowledge of the Musicians in Exile spreads by word of mouth. I also hand out flyers in Farsi, Sorani Kurdish, Arabic and English. Partners like the Red Cross know who we are and refer people on to us. Asylum seekers are in a process to verify their claim which is very sensitive. Many use Musicians in Exile to get away from their problems and lose themselves in music.

I have had to develop a good sense of pricing Middle Eastern instruments. I ask what each musician needs, then buy good quality and value for money instruments using ebay, Salar Musik in Turkey or Amazon. Govan Housing Association lets us use a community hub, formerly a shop, to rehearse in for free. This creates a very accessible, open face to the world. We get all sorts of locals wanting to come in and listen, establishing our sense of acceptance, belonging, and ease with Glasgow’s people. I think folk just love the story of asylum seekers with virtually nothing to their name getting up on stage and doing a hugely entertaining and diverse musical gig.

Musicians in Exile is on a rollercoaster. Winning The National Diversity Award and the Voluntary Arts EPIC Award for Scotland in 2019 suddenly put us on a plain we’re still adjusting to. But as long as we stay simple and maintain the safe environment these musicians need to make music, the future will just keep on growing. glasgowbarons.com

The power of music

In rural Somerset, member promoting group Churchill Music is championing the idea that experiencing music is as important as making music.

Jan Murray would be the first to tell you that there was a time when there wasn’t much happening musically for the residents of Churchill. Jan, a retired nurse who doesn’t make music herself, remembers her first classical concert. ‘I wasn’t really all that interested, but when I came away I was feeling calm and happy, and I realised the importance of simply listening to music of whatever genre.’ Along with her friend Ursula Dornton, who has since passed away, Jan co-founded Churchill Music with the aim of bringing world-class professional musicians to perform in their rural area.

Today its team of trustees run five professional concerts a year and its ‘Young Churchill Music’ brings professional musicians to present workshops in local schools, organises student composition projects, sponsors instrument taster classes in primary schools and hosts the Churchill Young Musician of the Year competition.

Recently, Churchill Music pioneered a two-part workshop that demonstrates to Year 5 children how and why music has such a huge effect on our brains, and how filmmakers and advertisers use it to influence our perceptions and moods. Although the teachers don’t need to be musical and the children don’t need to learn a musical instrument for the workshop, working with schools in the first place was not easy. Jan went to the local authority who helped with a list of schools that were looking to fulfil their wellbeing agendas. If there was one thing she learned during the doorknocking process? ‘Persistence,’ says Jan. ‘Each school is different. You need to talk to the heads – try and get a meeting with them. Each school is allocated a budget for wellbeing, which is one way to approach it, particularly now that mental health awareness is about to enter the curriculum in 2020.’

Churchill Music’s work doesn’t stop there. To assist head teachers with promoting the crosscurricular benefits of music learning, they made a film, Music Helps Us Learn. With funding from the National Lottery through Arts Council England, it demonstrates how taking part in music in schools raises academic standards. churchillmusic.org.uk

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