Page 175 - ASMF Marriner 100 Coverage Book

Trafalgar Square and the old Covent Garden market. Visitors are invited to pick up a

leaflet describing the project from the information desk in the crypt of St Martin’s,
download a free Echoes.xyz app to their phone, and follow a circular route around
the surrounding streets, pausing on the way to listen to individual tracks.

The pieces were created during writing and music workshops held at The

Connection’s day centre across the road from the church, whose red door is pointed
out as walkers set off along the route. As in all ASMF’s work with The Connection,
professional musicians, students and people experiencing homelessness came
together and shared their talents and skills to form a creative ensemble, explains
long-term collaborator, composer and workshop leader Jackie Walduck: ‘All ideas
are welcomed, every voice is heard, and artistic outcomes are created jointly through

improvisation and co-composing, reflecting the dynamic aspects of chamber music,
or playing in a jazz or rock band. Musical confidence grows as ideas are shared
between everyone in the workshop.’ Workshop leader Hazel Gould points out that
many of the ‘amateur’ participants brought a high level of skills and experience to
the project, such as one young man who was a very fine developing writer and would
bring a substantial body of work to share at the sessions each week, while others
could play the guitar or find their way around a piano.

‘Circle exercises that seemed simple encouraged everyone’s skills as musicians –
starting and stopping, taking turns – that might be someone who plays the violin
beautifully in the orchestra, and then someone with a shaker, but we gave them both
equal airspace,’ she recalls. ‘What was really brilliant about the way Jackie led the
sessions was that the professional and student musicians were also following the

lead. When we started an improvisation, they did such a beautiful job of supporting,
doubling, echoing rhythms, and extending tunes and fragments that came from
other participants.’