EDI ‘The Collection’ an artistic response

[00:00:05] Gabriella Hi, my name is Gabriella Liandu, and this is my piece Accept the Clouds. I wrote this piece as a reminder to not criticise myself whilst being creative. And one of the ways that this piece connects to diversity and the whole concept of diversity is the way that it represents how I have allowed myself to have freedom in music and freedom in my expression. And I'm a big believer in the fact that your voice is your own and you have all the power to unlock different parts of your voice, and you can do with it what you choose. So part of my existence and the way that I like to embody how I move about the music world is allowing myself to go into different spaces, unexpected spaces and perform unexpected music. And I do opera. I do jazz. I sing choral music. I do a plethora of different things. And although people say, you know, you have to choose just one thing, this is my way of accepting that it's okay to explore all the different passions and things you enjoy.

[00:01:40] Gabriella Gabriella performs her piece, Accept the Clouds.

[00:00:03] Lele Samms Let's take the time to appreciate that we live in a world that allows us to learn, to develop and grow in whatever capacity that might be. Faith, for example, represents people having genuine intentions and guidance on how to live their life, and how the experience is different for different people. The purity of life is, ultimately, happiness. We have been conditioned by natural and uncontrollable to our sports to protect our hearts. Well, in doing this, it's almost as if we have allowed things we can't control to only hurt us so much. The issues that influence people into behaving in ways that are also simply incorrect. This has created another world that will encourage people to think about themselves first and foremost, to the point whereby, if you do not do this, it's seen as a self-esteem issue. Someone, one and two are based on things that have not impact us the way that they do. We deserve to be free from not being apathetic in order for people to take us seriously and respect us. We can do this - it's already in us. We have to nurture that part of ourselves out. This will very naturally be shared with those around us. I believe, deep down, we know that certain things are important. But when we show kindness and love towards ourselves and it's not reciprocated, it is very painful, to the point where instead of living a peaceful life, we anticipate negative outcomes and retaliate for what we think is going to happen to us if we share kindness. Bad mindsets and behaviours do not rely on trust, patience or anything that would put you in that position to feel let down. The reality, I believe, is seen as an all-new l'Est fairy tale, and some people think that this mindset is a result of being vulnerable adult. Being a nice person should not be seen as a requirement, but rather a natural way of life.

[00:00:38] Archie Auger As a queer artist, I feel free, I feel that I don't need to hide. In the music that we play, in the tradition, queerness is kept away. It's never at the forefront. It's always hidden. Like Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky who composed this nocturne, it's locked away. Our overt queerness can't show. Why is that? Why does it have to be this way?

[00:01:41] Archie Auger I feel free. I feel that I don't need to hide. And that's because I'm surrounded by an Industry that supports queerness. And supports openness and freedom in artistic expression. It doesn't hold back your career aspirations or your artistry. It's not always been like this and it's not the same all across the world. Why is that?

[00:02:03] Archie Auger As a queer artist, I feel free. I feel like I don't need to hide. But we still have so much work that we need to do.

[00:00:04] Bradley Wilson Hi, I'm Bradley, and I'm one of the trumpet players in Wall Street brass. After the height of the Black Lives Matter movement in the summer, we decided as a quintet it would be really important for us to start programming more music by black composers. Not only did we realise how important it is to do this, but it's also opened our eyes to a whole new world of music and a whole new style of playing. Unearthing this music is so important so that all anybody who comes to any concerts feels like they're completely included in everything that's going on, because there's so many different lives out there that have sort of been forgotten about, as well as the music that's also been forgotten about by societal prejudices through history. But now is a really exciting time for music and a really exciting time for the quintet, because we're now in a position where we can unearth this new music and bring it to the world. So as a quintet, we'd like to present Quinn Mason's three Solitude Chorales, three very different chorales that were actually designed as church pieces or warm up pieces for a brass quintet and come from a larger book of bigger chorals that Quinn Mason wrote Quinn Mason as an African-American composer in his early 30s. And we've all been in contact with him directly to get our hands on this piece. So, Quinn, I hope you enjoy this and I hope everyone watching this enjoys this, too.