‘It will show others how we’re all going on a journey,’ says 16-year-old pianist, Troy.
Orchestras for All has shared a captivating new video in a bid to highlight the importance of youth voice and self-expression.
Titled ‘The Great Interstellar Orchestra’ and premiered today via YouTube, the six-minute clip (watch above) combines beautiful sounds and striking animations, created and performed by 100 young musicians.
The diverse musical group are members of National Orchestra for All (NOFA) – the UK’s only completely inclusive national youth orchestra – which has taken to Zoom for its rehearsals this season, amid the coronavirus pandemic. By harnessing the power of technology and exploring new ways of connecting, digital creativity became possible.
As part of NOFA’s four-day spring course, members were invited to a series of virtual workshops on remixing and collage led by British composer, Jack McNeill, and digital visual artist, Bryony Simcox. It was the unique stories and creations that emerged from young musicians during these sessions that formed the basis of the audiovisual composition.
“‘The Great Interstellar Orchestra’ is all about giving young people a voice,” explains NOFA composer, Jack
After seeing the digital work – which was also named by NOFA members – for the first time, Troy, a young pianist with NOFA, said: “It had all the unique elements of people’s different ideas put together… I thought it was amazing!
“By the end I was so interested in it, I wanted to see more. I’m really happy that I was a part of it and that I was able to contribute to all of this. It will show [others] how we’re all going on a journey… where we are, what we want to do and what we want to achieve.”
NOFA percussionist, Abz, added: “It’s got the different noises and different instruments, and it represents us all as a whole. We’re not the same but we’re all linked in some way.”
Together: NOFA members share what performing means to them during the spring 2021 course
Ahead of the premiere, Orchestras for All caught up with UK-based composer, Jack, and digital visual artist, Bryony, to find out more about the creative process for the project (watch video below).
Speaking about the music, Jack explained: “The sounds that you will hear in ‘The Great Insterstellar Orchestra’ are all sounds that the members of the National Orchestra for All recorded themselves. After four days of workshops, members began to create their own works, exploring the sounds of their instruments, their creative potential, and sharing the sounds they had made with the NOFA creative team.
Discover more on National Orchestra for All’s young musicians >
“‘The Great Interstellar Orchestra’ is all about giving young people a voice and showcasing their creativity. And this is exactly what this piece does. The audio track is constructed (almost) exclusively of the NOFA members’ own recordings, processed, chopped up and warped to create this digital ensemble. Within the texture, every single sound that was sent has been included in some way and every member has an important role and voice within the team.”
He continued: “The piece fully represents the diversity of NOFA members’ creative ideas, with some instrumental melodies peppered across the piece, interspersed with percussive interludes, rich ambient textures, and almost synthetic-sounding extended techniques. If you listen carefully, you will hear the voice of every single NOFA member in this work.
“I have hugely enjoyed working on this project. It is one of the largest and most ambitious I have worked on, with almost all of the creative decisions in the hands of the NOFA members, and over 100 pieces of audio to weave into the final piece.
“While ‘The Great Interstellar Orchestra’ is built up of individual voices, NOFA members demonstrated their creative capabilities as an ensemble. With many of the sounds that were sent in, there was clarity in each submission’s role in the piece and how they would support the work as a whole. Even remotely and in a digital medium, these young musicians so clearly understand and appreciate the inner workings of an ensemble, and it shows in their creative work.”
“Tunnels, car rides and cogs reflect the idea of coming together,” says digital visual artist, Bryony
Explaining her approach to the artwork, digital visual artist, Bryony, added: “When you watch the piece, look out for the abstracted images of instruments – each of these are photographs sourced by NOFA members who looked for patterns and shapes within the instruments they play. Also observe the use of colour – each of the colours included were chosen by NOFA members as a visual interpretation of the sound and timbre of their instruments.
“The idea of colour and sound working together is especially apparent in the middle section, where the adrenaline of tuning up and getting ready to perform as an orchestra is represented through a cycling rainbow of colours and flashing words. This reaches its climax as the ‘orchestra’ is in perfect harmony and the screen fills with the colour red.
“As well as pattern and colour, the overarching structure of the piece was curated by NOFA members, who used storyboarding in Zoom to imagine ways to tell the story of being part of the orchestra. First, the disparate pieces emerge, just as each NOFA member comes together from different backgrounds and corners of the country. As the video continues, we use tunnels, car rides, cogs and train journeys – all literal imagery suggested by the young people to reflect the idea of coming together.”
In perfect harmony: NOFA members and tutors get creative with colour using the screens of their devices
NOFA musicians explore the medium of collage on Miro and create their own artwork
She continued: “After the red climax of the piece, the video features animation which bring collages to life in time to the music. Here, it feels as though ‘The Great Interstellar Orchestra’ is performing together, and each and every instrument and musician has a role to play. Before the piece comes to a close, the finale features some of the artwork created by the young people at the end of the spring season workshops – 2D abstract collages made using software called ‘Miro’.”
But it wasn’t just young people that inspired NOFA’s digital piece. Artistic Director at Orchestras for All, Emma, says the team were also influenced by the orchestral world: “Our spring course for 2021 was the one-year anniversary of NOFA working together on Zoom, and we wanted to work with the visual medium to dig deeper into how we can be an orchestra online. Our starting points were themes found in Britten’s ‘The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra’ – the central work to our artistic season: unity within community, solo voices within an ensemble, the parts of a whole and being heard in a crowd. NOFA took these initial ideas and moved them on.
“‘The Great Interstellar Orchestra’ seems to me, now, to champion being part of something new: joining a community, making a contribution, taking action and valuing others. Maybe it will tell different stories to others. The making of ‘The Great Interstellar Orchestra’ was a complete joy. Using a wide range of musical and visual practices, NOFA members brought wonderful ideas and fun to the storytelling. This project has certainly transformed the possibilities of creative work for this orchestra for the future, and we are so grateful to Jack and Bryony for enabling the individual voices of NOFA to speak as one.”
While the arts sector may have been faced with unexpected challenges during the coronavirus pandemic, Orchestras for All won’t let that become another barrier to music-making. By fully embracing digital trends such as Zoom, we can continue to connect with our young people and create exciting new pieces of work.
A very special thanks to Arts Council England, Youth Music, our loyal funders and individual donors, ambassadors, volunteers, and pastoral and orchestral tutors for helping to make this digital project possible.
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