Free Improvisation Workshop brings students and two Creative CETLs
together
On October 6th two groups of students met together for the first time in the College Chapel at York St. John for the first of a series of exciting new musical collaborations between C4C CETL and the CETL for Music and Inclusivity.
Six and a half hours of intense activity ensued, in the afternoon a free improvisation workshop led by John Edwards and Mark Sanders followed by a public performance by the students later that same evening.
The group of 16 students from the two Universities were completely inspired by the event and the next workshop is already scheduled to take place in Newcastle next February.
'Friday's event in York was fantastic. We had eight students and they contributed the same number. The workshop was really good and the gig even better. The York students were really pleased about meeting our lot and in a way it was like one of those 'hey rock n roll' moments - like 'Back to the Future' when Michael Fox does Chuck Berry for 50s schoolkids - only it was the avant-garde version. The upshot is that students on both sides are mad keen to keep this going and build for the next get together'
Will Edmondes, Senior Lecturer Newcastle University.
'Students developed links on a friendship, musical and compositional level which enabled important musical bridges to be created in easy intelligent ways'
Mark Self PhD student, Newcastle University
Since 1995 John Edwards has become a 'mainstay' of the London scene, playing with just about everybody, an activity that has seen him clocking up between 150 and 200 gigs a year. He is a frequent player on the European (and festival) scene, appearing at Taktlos, Ulrichsburg, Nickelsdorf, Budapest, New Zealand and in the USA.
John Edwards & Mark Sanders have appeared in trios led by Veryan Weston, Evan Parker, Tony Bevan and Elton Dean, as well as a quintet led by Alan Wilkinson. Other briefer trios have featured Peter Brötzmann and Frode Gjerstad