Multi-Story Orchestra to premiere climate change symphony Our Future In Your Hands
Hattie Fisk
Tuesday, September 7, 2021
Created by award-winning young composer Kate Whitley and poet and director Laura Attridge, Our Future In Your Hands is a new orchestral work that will premiere with a performance from the Multi-Story Orchestra and a choir of Peckham students.
Ambra Vernuccio
Inspired by the global youth movement against climate change, and Greta Thunberg’s work, Our Future In Your Hands will be performed for the first time by a choir of 100 local pupils from Peckham schools at Bold Tendencies multi-storey car park. The choir will be divided into two, with one side representing anger and protest, and another acting as the voice of optimism and change for the future.
The performers will be accompanied by the Multi-Story Orchestra, which consists of young people and professional musicians, and was co-founded by Whitley and conductor Christopher Stark. This will be the orchestra’s first large-scale performance in two years.
Three soloists will also feature in the performance: soprano Sarah-Jane Lewis, mezzo-soprano Kate Howden, and bass baritone Darren Jeffery. Our Future In Your Hands covers a number of stories surrounding climate change, and uses the soloists to tell apocalyptic tales, such as a man deciding whether or not to have a child due to global warming.
The project was commissioned by the Buxton International Festival in collaboration with the Royal Over-Seas League and the Borletti-Buitoni Trust.
The performance will take place at Bold Tendancies, multi-storey car park, Peckham, at 7pm on 14 September. A second performance will take place on 15 September at 7pm.
This is a Genesis Kickstart Fund project, supported by the Genesis Foundation.
For more information on the project, or to buy a ticket, visit www.multi-story.org.uk/upcomingevents
