An intimate musical performance transforming the Deaf Institute into a space of connection and healing.
Built around voicemail messages from lost loved ones, artists’ Verity Watts and Rosie Parsons, will invite our audiences to come together over shared experiences of loss and grief.
Many of us keep everyday messages or voicemails from loved ones after their death, and this piece seeks to create a space where they can be heard and responded to through music and sound, to honour the significance of these messages, and place them in a new and uplifting context.
Using the idea of a séance, the performance draws on the different ways we maintain a connection with those who are no longer with us. Using turntables, electronics and newly commissioned choral motifs, artists Verity Watts and Rosie Parsons will work together with improvising performers Lara Jones (saxophone) and Lucy Nolan (harp), to create a supportive, shared space through sound and music.
29th February, Deaf Institute
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Submissions are central to this project and we would love to hear from you. As such, if you have a message (a voicemail or audio recording) from a loved one who has died, and you would like it to become part of the composition then please email our audience invitation specialist, Aiyisha Williams (submissions@manchesterjazz.com). From there, Aiyisha, will be in touch to assist with any further questions you may have.
We understand just how precious these messages are and we greatly appreciate any interest in the project. As such, we’d like to establish contact with all interested participants and work together to help you safely extract and send your voicemail messages to us.
Please note that submission of interest is exactly that and there will be no commitment to submit a voicemail message. All those taking part in the project will need to sign an additional waiver granting mjf permission to use your messages.
The artists will take the messages as a starting point for their composition and improvisation, and respond to them musically, in an intimate performance. We may play the messages in their entirety, repeated, or just a small part. If we have used your submitted message in the performance, we’ll invite you to attend the performance, if you would like.
