Mozart And Vivaldi Remixed By Camerata Youth Forum

Manchester Camerata’s Youth Programme has got off to a vibrant start, with young people in Salford and Stafford remixing the music of Mozart and Vivaldi respectively, culminating in live performances before Manchester Camerata concerts. Hear one of the mixes in full below.

In November, young people from Salford worked with composer Rodrigo Constanzo, DJ/Mix Artist Matt Halsall, Camerata trumpeter Helen Quayle and Vocalist Tosin Akindele over the course of three weeks prior to the final performance. Using computer samplers and effects programmes, the young people listened to Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 23 and identified key sections to loop and distort to create new sounds. The participants then sang their own original lyrics or raps alongside these newly created sounds.

The REmix project has had a tremendous impact on the self confidence and creativity of the young people and increased their desire to create their own music. They have also developed their leadership skills, learnt new compositional skills and discovered more about Mozart’s life and style of work.

‘I’ve enjoyed it because [the musicians] show you a different side to the type of music they listen to that you’ve never really seen before. Like me, normally I didn’t used to be into a lot of classical music but if they have as much passion as I have for rap it can show you that you too can actually feel the same thing for music’, Sam, 15.

And earlier this month, a group of students from Stafford College (pictured above) remixed one of Vivaldi’s most familiar and well loved of concertos, The Four Seasons. Have a listen to one of the final tracks below – this is a song called ‘Spring: Seasons Change’.

REmix and the wider Manchester Camerata youth programme is made possible through funding from the Andrew Lloyd Webber Foundation, Curious Minds and the Ernest Cook Trust. Working with young people outside of a formal education setting is a new venture for the organisation and represents Camerata’s huge passion for using music to change the lives of disengaged young people or those in areas of low arts provision.