Croydon’s resident orchestra, London Mozart Players are commissioning An Anthem for Peace to be launched at Croydon’s first Festival of Peace.
For the WW1 centenary, LMP will be commissioning a classical composer to create a modern-day anthem which can be played, rapped, sung, remixed or sampled by musicians of all abilities, ages, genres and backgrounds.
Croydon’s first Festival of Peace takes its inspiration from the power of the arts to touch, inspire and uplift communities. As a borough, we have found creative ways to stand together after the riots, the tram crash and the more recent assault on an asylum seeker. The festival will be a space for our community to reflect on what peace means to us and to join together in a vibrant, colourful, multi-cultural celebration.
Schools, choirs, orchestras, bands, rappers, artists etc from across Croydon will be invited to perform the Anthem at the festival's centre piece community day in Park Hill in Croydon in June 2018.
What we'll deliver:
- Create Teaching Packs to be distributed to participating community groups, choirs and schools
- Manage the staging of the live performance and other festival events
- Promote the Festival and encourage everyone to be part of the first live performance of the Anthem
- Recruit well-known artists to perform and record the Anthem of Peace with LMP
- Commission a composer to create the Anthem for Peace
Why it's a great idea:
In a year where the World remembers the devastation of WWI, we want to uplift, and unify people in our local and global community. The Anthem offers everyone a chance to find their voice and reflect on what peace means for them. We particularly want to engage young people, as Croydon has the largest population of young people under 15 of any London Borough.
The 2011 riots shocked the community and spurred local artists and entrepreneurs to start award-winning initiatives such as Croydon Tech City and Rise Gallery. The violent assault on asylum seeker Rekher Ahmed in April 2017 was followed by a march organised by Stand Up Against Racism attended by hundreds.
The Festival of Peace will partner with and celebrate those who have contributed to community cohesion. It will offer a space for all to enjoy peaceful, collaborative arts events. We hope that this model of peace-making and the beauty of the Anthem can ripple out from Croydon to our wider global community.
Steps to get it done:
- Recruit local schools, musicians and music groups to rehearse and learn the Anthem
- Recruit well known artists to perform and record the Anthem of Peace with LMP
- Rehearse the Anthem and devise a teaching pack for schools and community groups
- Commission a composer to write and orchestrate the Anthem
- Perform the Anthem as the flagship community event for the 2018 Festival of Peace
- Recruit a production manager to organise the staging for the community performance
The Anthem and the Peace Festival are about core values and the sort of community we want to live in. We know that if you share those values that you will be happy to support the project without any rewards. But we still want to thank and involve all our supporters and donors and would like to do so as follows:
For Peace Friends who give from £2 to £20 you will get a huge thank you from all of us and of course be kept informed as to how the project progresses.
For Peace Lovers who give from £20 to £100 we will invite you to take an active part in the project, bringing your choir, school, community group or just a group of friends, to the event
For Peace Ambassadors who give £100 or more we will invite you to the rehearsals to meet the Players, Guest Artists and performers.