The project, titled ‘Camden to the Caribbean’ was led in collaboration with Kinetika Bloco, a performance group that draws their influences from the Caribbean, Brazil, Africa, and New Orleans. Since September 2022, Kinetika Bloco have worked with four schools – Fleet Primary School, St Albans Primary School, St Mary & St Pancras Primary School, and Regent High School – and introduced the pupils to four distinctive styles of Caribbean music: Calypso, Ska, Soca and Zouk. Over six months, they composed a ten-minute piece celebrating these four music genres.
The countdown is really on now! Not long to go until everyone gets to hear this fantastic piece of music created by some of our very own Camden students with support from @KinetikaBloco. Are you as excited as we are? @RegentHighSch @FleetPrimary @StAlbansCamden #stmarypancras https://t.co/5vs6nxFMxB
— Camden Music Hub (@camdenmusichub) April 19, 2023
The schools spent the Spring term rehearsing their piece with staff from Camden Music Hub, alongside Open Academy Fellows and elective students. Children from the four schools have been learning a variety of instruments, from trumpet and trombone to steel pans and percussion and every child learned their parts from memory.
The two thousand students met together for the first time on the day of the concert, bringing together a selection of Camden’s musical ensembles and over eight hundred singers from the borough’s primary and secondary schools to bring the piece to life. The piece was a fantastic celebration of London’s diversity.
Huge congratulations to everyone that was involved in coordinating and performing this exciting work!
Awesome night at @RoyalAlbertHall for the premiere of Camden to the Caribbean created by our team with young people from 4 amazing #camden schools. Huge thank you to @camdenmusichub for having us, @londonmusicfund for funding it and @RoyalAcadMusic students for helping us! pic.twitter.com/sNmR29J6jq
— Kinetika Bloco (@KinetikaBloco) April 25, 2023
Image 1: Camden to the Caribbean at the Royal Albert Hall © Chris Balmer
Images 2&3: Students perform steel pans with Kinetika Bloco © Chris Balmer