2022 Project Summary - Voices in Harmony
Voices in Harmony was one of four big funded projects we ran this year, and consisted of a series of musical workshops held over the spring and summer, culminating in two special performances in Harmony Woods to celebrate the end of a decade of schools’ tree planting. It was funded by Scops Arts Trust, the Co-op, The Sarah Morgan Foundation, HDH Wills 1965 Charitable Trust, Test Valley Councillor Grants, Test Valley Arts Foundation, and ourselves at Andover Trees United. The National Lottery Community Fund’s Reaching Communities programme provided funding for officers to plan and coordinate delivery of the project.
Note: Voices in Harmony and Living by the Ash Tree Waters involved acclaimed folk musician Paul Sartin, who very sadly died suddenly in September. We feel privileged to have been able to work with Paul, and glad that these projects helped introduce his beloved traditional folk music to a new audience in the local community. Our thoughts are with his family and friends.
The core aims of the project were:
To explore place and connection to intergenerational community through song and sound, celebrating the natural environment in harmony
To discover, learn and perform local traditional song and understand how this connects people to place and embeds community resilience
To enhance creative engagement with nature for the community – ‘People and Place in Harmony’
Through combined arts, to foster a shared understanding and appreciation of the place in which we live – the people, the landscape, the culture, the history – creating a shared identity, raising awareness and connections
To celebrate ecology and cultural heritage within a range of voices and environmental sounds
To leave a legacy of creativity from the project and a deeper connection to the local environment
For artists and professional session leaders, to undertake professional development, try out new approaches, reach new or different audiences, work with new people, create and commission new work
Andover Trees United (ATU) commissioned sound artist Justin Wiggan, and folk musicians Paul Sartin and Jackie Oates, to prepare, develop, and lead a series of workshops. The three artists were also commissioned to collaborate on the composition of a new tree-related song and to prepare and lead a final concert, to be held in Harmony Woods, showcasing the results of all their workshops, as part of the end-of-decade celebrations.
Justin Wiggan uses special equipment to connect to plants, and the natural biorhythms are converted into sound. In March, he held 3 school workshops in Portway Junior School in Andover and the village primary schools in Appleshaw and Vernham Dean. 90 pupils aged 5-11 were introduced to the biorhythms of plants and their responses to human interaction, which were made audible as sound and also experienced as vibrations through Subpac vests. These were followed by two similar community workshops in Harmony Woods, where two significant oak trees were used to collect biorhythm sounds. The tree recordings and responses of workshop participants to the experience would form the basis of two new collaborative compositions. One of the two oaks was the very first tree planted to launch the ATU Harmony Woods project in November 2012, and had been sung into the ground by acclaimed folk musician Sarah Morgan; the second oak tree was planted in 2014 to celebrate Sarah’s life following her death. Participant responses were collected at all five workshops, along with personal stories and memories related to sound and connection to nature. In July, Justin held an online livestreamed demonstration of producing sounds from plants, and Q&A.
Paul Sartin and Jackie Oates led whole-day workshops in Harrow Way Community School, Portway Juniors, Appleshaw Primary, and Vernham Dean Primary, between March and May. They introduced 260 young people to traditional and new songs related to trees and woodland, gave them the opportunity to sing together, played music, explained about their instruments and folk traditions, and led a folk dance session. The primary school pupils were also invited to adapt the words of the song Sarah Morgan sang at the 2012 tree-planting, for use in the final end-of-decade celebratory concert. In June and July, Jackie and Paul led a Saturday workshop in Andover for local residents of all ages and a half-day weekday workshop open to children from all Andover schools, from which was formed an intergenerational ‘pop-up’ choir, who had two rehearsals prior to the celebration concert.
ATU staff and volunteers provided support in all the workshops, and planned the format and content of the concert. In addition to commissioning the three artists, the funding also enabled the team to hire local church halls as workshop and rehearsal spaces, purchase refreshments for the events, hire straw bales for seating at the concert, and pay for the travel expenses of London-based Musiko Musika ECCO (Ethnic Contemporary Classical Orchestra for young people), who were invited to perform as part of ATU’s developing relationship with the group.
The Voices in Harmony open-air concert was the final celebration in a series of events held in 2022 to mark the end of a decade of schoolchildren planting trees at Harmony Woods - 10,000 trees by 10,000 children over 10 years. A matinee and evening performance was held in the Hazel Circle at Harmony Woods on Saturday 16th July. Around 150 audience members were entertained by 15 members of the visiting youth orchestra playing multicultural and diverse music; the skilled fiddle-playing and singing of Paul and Jackie; Justin Wiggan’s ‘tree music’ recordings from the woods and live ‘playing’ of Sarah Morgan’s oak tree; and 35 singers aged 8-70+ performing songs old and new in three-part harmony - all accompanied by the wood’s resident skylarks.
There were a range of benefits and impacts from the project. Young people and adults from a range of backgrounds came together, through music and song, in shared celebration of the natural environment, cultural heritage, and community. People of all ages were introduced to a musical genre unfamiliar to them, and learned about it from leading practitioners. Novice singers were able to collaborate with and learn from experienced ones, and build confidence by performing in front of a live audience. Young people had a key role in the creation of two new “tree shanties”. The artists benefited by being able to raise awareness and profile of their work, and experimenting and collaborating. And a decade of community conservation achievements was successfully celebrated.
Thanks to all concerned, the Voices in Harmony project was a success, achieving its aims and having a positive impact on members of the local community. We are working with Jackie Oates and Justin Wiggan to produce recordings of the compositions that were created for the project, and plan to hold a summer music concert in Harmony Woods annually. If you are interested in supporting or taking part in future events, please contact us at volunteers@andovertrees.org.uk .
Read the full project report here: Project Report 2022 - Voices in Harmony
Concert programme: Voices in Harmony 2022 Concert Programme
Programme insert artist information: VIH 2022 concert programme insert
