14 April 2015: What an evening at the beautiful and accessible St. George’s ‘Hawksmoor’ church, in Bloomsbury. Surrounded by a chandelier of light musicians took to the stage whilst the audience quaffed champagne, purchased by donation. Entry to the event was only £15 and over £1000 was raised on the night and will help provide a BBS Scholarship for Musicians with Disabilities at the Royal Academy of Music. We are aware of the issues of disclosing a disability at a job interview but it’s even more daunting if you’re a 15 year old with a chance to attend the Academy. Hiding a disability for fear of not being able to follow your dream is often the case and BBS wants to make all institutions and public buildings more welcoming for people with disabilities; the Scholarship is just another step (so to speak!) along the way.
The concert opened with Christian Prior with a funk/soul feel accompanied by violins and cello from the Aldwych Sinfonia.
Christian’s compositions were a great way to open and introduce the abundance of talent at the concert.
Next came James Christie with Shooting Suns a completely different sound, with a great mix of a ‘Dido-like’ vocal from Shooting Suns and rhythmic drums from James. This brought the first ovation of the night and questions about when they might release an album? A new Cold Play with better drums?
Then the legendary Mik Scarlet performed his own songs in a punk/dance genre. Standing in for the soprano Cristina Jones who was taken ill at the last moment, he was only meant to attend the event.What a star! Some members of the audience actually got up and danced. He ended with the Sex Pistols and we all waited for ‘God to Strike Him Down’.
Then came a wonderful interlude to calm us down by Aldwych Sinfonia
After a short break for more champagne (& donations) Midori Jaeger performed on the Cello, again accompanied by Aldwych Sinfonia. She performed her own songs and compositions which were hauntingly good with a touch of folk and funk. Another new style of MIX that was immediately memorable. An act that will definitely be followed by many of the audience.
After another break and a joke from the compere for the night, The American Lieutenant, then James Welland performed both his own beautiful compositions and a fantastic version of the well known piece ‘Summertime’. A superb classical/jazz musician. He also received an ovation as the audience were overwhelmed by one star after another.
Zosia Jagodzinska followed with a different style of jazz/folk songs written by herself. This was a disturbingly beautiful performance with voice and cello….
Finally the evening ended with another performance from Cristian Prior and his band accompanied by the audience and the ‘Blue Badge Style’ shakers we provided !? Not sure we were all ‘in time’ with Christian’s rhythm – the Pol Roger had taken effect by now???
A wonderful way to end what was a memorable and immensely moving concert. I’ve run out of superlatives except to say if our scholarship can nurture just a fragment of the talent on display we will have succeeded………..take a look at all the performances here and tell us what you think.……….