Image: Composer Tamsin Elliot at Sainsbury Centre (Kate Wolstenholme)
Museums in the UK are welcoming musicians through their door in collaborations which seek to expand the presentation of collections and exhibitions.
Compositions inspired by objects
At the Sainsbury Centre in Norwich, a collaboration with UK museum charity Sound and Music entitled SoundEscapes sees ten composers invited to create a new composition that can “help capture the essence of a work of art” in the Centre’s collection.
Now in its second year, it will see Björk collaborator Matthew Herbert and Friendly Fires lead singer Ed Macfarlane among names creating new compositions for one of the artworks, spanning 6000 years, that inspire them.
Director of the Sainsbury Centre, Jago Cooper, said: “Music has the power to transform that silent canvas into an emotional landscape, elevating the visual experience into a multisensory masterpiece. Just as a film score breathes life into its scenes, music can set the tone for an unforgettable encounter with art. That is why we are so excited to be working with the wonderful Sound and Music organisation”
Joining the established musicians are a cohort of young, emerging and established composers from across Sound and Music’s community.
Each selected object in the collection will have a composition written for it, which Sainsbury Centre said will enable it to “tell its life story and engage with audiences in a new and dynamic way, all through the power of music”
Launching on 6 December 2024, the compositions will be available via the Sainsbury Centre website, and experienced physically in the museum next to the artworks that inspired them.
@horniman Introducing the Horniman Musicians in Residence 🎶 Bloomer, Pouya and Shola have been our Musicians in Residence since July 2023 and they’re getting ready to show you what they’ve been working on. The programme celebrates the music scenes of south London through the creation of new music. These exciting musicians have been looking at our Collections as a stimulus to create new work. The programme is made possible thanks to prize money received from Art Fund as winner of Art Fund Museum of the Year 2022. #newmusic #horniman #artfund #museumtok ♬ original sound – Horniman Museum and Gardens
Musicians in Residence
The Horniman Museum and Gardens has announced that it has appointed the second cohort in its Musicians in Residence programme, celebrating the music scenes of London.
The Horniman’s Musicians in Residence programme links early career musicians with its Musical Instrument collection.
The musicians include punk rap and art collective Anti.net, dizi flautist from Hong Kong Daniel Tsz-shing Lei, and Zimbabwean mbira player and singer Gabriel ‘Sekuru’ Makamanzi. .
Over six months the musicians will work with Saava Benjamin Busenze Balagadde, Rudi Schmidt and Joseph Rubio from the Horniman’s Curatorial and Community Engagement teams to produce new music, digital content, and immersive live performances at the Horniman Museum Lates in February – April 2025.
Their work will also be showcased in a joint work in progress Hear it Live! performance on Thursday 14 November 2024 at 3.30pm.
Rudi Schmidt, the Musicians in Residence programme manager, said “from deeply held spiritual traditions of the mbira to disruptive punk-rap energy, to contemporary approaches to folk-art, these artists will share a broad range of cultural expression with our audiences. They are all experts of their craft, and we are looking forward to seeing how they respond to our collections and influence the way we work as a museum.”
