Cumbria Calling is a partnership between Cumbria Music Hub and Orchestras Live that enables young people across Cumbria to create, compose and perform with the support of professional orchestras and producers. It is designed to develop and raise the performance and composition skills of young people across the county, targeting those not currently engaged in local music programmes and signposting further education and career pathways in the creative industries.

Developed from initial partnership projects from 2016, Cumbria Calling aimed to foster creativity and composition in Cumbria, touching on a range of genres across residencies and workshops with professional musicians. The programme involved Cumbria Youth Orchestra (CYO), with a long term aim to transform the group into a more creative ensemble. CYO have performed the new repertoire created by their peers. During 2021, alongside other young Cumbria musicians, they participated in our national Share Sound project, creating and recording their own new work.

What we did

Since 2015 our partnership with Cumbria Music Hub has:

• Created 13 new pieces of music, highlighting the creative voice of Cumbrian young people
• Reached over 1,800 young people as participants
• Produced 11 concerts, 2 films and 10 film screenings
• Reached over 8,500 live and digital audiences that heard the young people’s new music
• Reached over 20,000 people with Encountering Wordsworth through exhibitions and BBC Radio Cumbria broadcasts exploring the project.

• Cumbria Calling’s focus on large scale orchestral composition has created a new and varied repertoire of new works by young people.
• New music has responded to place based and relevant musical inspiration stimuli, resulting in the music feeling rooted in and relevant to Cumbria as well as reflecting a broad range of musical influences.
• The County Youth Orchestra has had a key role in performing the new works, fostering young musician’s engagement with exciting new orchestral repertoire and their understanding of the compositional process.
• Projects have supported social bonds to develop between young musicians through bringing individuals and different groups together, which is particularly important in a very rural area with the challenges for young people of geographical isolation.
• Participants were engaged on an equal level, regardless of their existing musical interests. This included those who were on a more 'traditional' musical path, already playing orchestral instruments and taking part in ensembles, to those who were more independent musicians with a preference for different musical styles. Cumbria Calling was able to foster interest in composition and broaden the musical horizons of all.
• Young composers have been able to take part in multiple projects, developing their compositional skills and confidence over time.

Projects

• Tales of Cumberland (2016/17) - Manchester Camerata, Andy Smith. Created a 3-movement multi-genre suite for orchestra and turntables.
• Tales of Eden (2017/18) - Manchester Camerata, Andy Smith. Created a song cycle for primary schools to learn and perform with the orchestra and CYO.
• Coastal Connections (2018/19) - Manchester Camerata, Andy Smith. Created Spirit of Adventure exploring the stories of Whitehaven. Young people curated and presented primary school concerts.
• Encountering Wordsworth (2019-2021) - Manchester Camerata, Laura Bowler. An inclusive music, poetry and multi-media project as part of Reimagining Wordsworth. The new piece was created but the premiere was cancelled in 2020 due to the pandemic and subsequently toured Cumbria as a film screening and exhibition at Wordsworth Grasmere.
• Share Sound (2021) - Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, James Redwood, Yshani Perinpanayagam. An online ensemble music-making project with CYO, Cockermouth Music Centre and Soundwaves.
• Cumbria Calling / Share Sound (2021/22) - Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Alice Phelps, James Redwood. The young composers group created Corvus and Dorian Jam, inspired by a musical story created from their photographs of Cumbria and its folk music heritage. Building on the pandemic projects, CYO’s programme included a live performance of the Share Sound works alongside premiere’s of the new works.
• Gaming Adventures (2023/24) - The Manchester Video Game Orchestra, Andy Smith. Working with secondary schools in the Furness peninsula young people have created 4 new pieces to a video game visual, developed from their brief to perform live with MVGO.

Cumbria Calling is co-produced by Cumbria Music Hub and Orchestras Live.