Mozart REmixed

A group of young people from Salford have been using contemporary technologies, styles and performance techniques to remix Mozart’s Piano Concerto no.23.  Their finished pieces were performed prior to Manchester Camerata’s Mozart II concert at the RNCM on 24 November.

As part of Manchester Camerata’s recently launched Youth programme 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 the original Mozart concerto 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.

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.

The next REmix in Greater Manchester will take place on 2 February with young people from Trafford, in partnership with Gorse Hill studios.