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24Oct 2020
News Comments Off on DAN Workshop for Senior Leaders: 29th October

DAN Workshop for Senior Leaders: 29th October

Diversity Arts Network (DAN), has commissioned a series of Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) workshops to allow network members to explore, discuss and develop skills in D&I.

Workshop for Senior leaders : 29th October 2-4pm,

In this workshop we will explore:

  • What is positive action?
  • How can positive action, as apposed to ‘positive discrimination”, make a difference?
  • What is Unconscious Bias and how can it affect decision making?
  • How can I as a leader take action?

These workshops will be held in a confidential and supportive environment to enable authentic discussion and learning.

Facilitator

The facilitator for these sessions will be Kamaljit Poonia, who is a Diversity Consultant and Leadership Coach.

Kamaljit has worked on ED&I issues for over 15 years. She headed ED&I teams in local authorities (Camden and Bristol), been a Diversity Advisor in the Civil Service (Department for International Development, Cabinet Office) and headed the ED&I team at the University of Southampton. She is also a trained and practicing coach. For the last three years Kamaljit has worked as an independent consultant with clients across the Arts and Cultural sector, local authorities, and business sector.

In 2018 she was presented with a top 100 Global Diversity and Inclusion Leaders Award at the Annual Global HRD conference in Mumbai.

Please register on:

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/diversity-arts-network-diversity-training-tickets-125322917219

16Oct 2020
News Comments Off on VOICES OF FREEDOM – SONGS AND DANCES FROM SOUTHERN AFRICA

VOICES OF FREEDOM – SONGS AND DANCES FROM SOUTHERN AFRICA

An evening of songs, exchange of ideas with members of U’Zambezi Arts celebrating Black History Month.

17th October 2020 7pm

The U’Zambezi Trio is part of U’Zambezi Arts – a UK based arts ensemble that specialises in songs, drumming, dances and story telling from Southern Africa.

As part of celebrating Black History Month the trio will do two slots of 30 minutes singing original and re- arranged songs of hope, freedom and the quest for equality amongst human beings and also a more balanced co-existence between humans and nature .

Online but families will be asked to sing along from the comfort of the homes.

Zoom details:

Time: Oct 17, 2020 07:00 PM London

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82694688599
Meeting ID: 826 9468 8599

5Sep 2020
News Comments Off on Maiuko and guests: Saturday 19th September, 4pm

Maiuko and guests: Saturday 19th September, 4pm

We are inviting some of our loyal members, friends and supporters to a live music event in a private garden in Kent on the weekends in August and September. If you are interested in attending please email events@equatorfestival.com.

MAIUKO & GUESTS

  • Voice-Maiuko
  • Double Bass- Alexander Keen
  • Violin- Paul Brasington
  • Drums- Elias Kacomanolis

Born in Mozambique of royal Swazi and Portuguese ancestry, Maiuko has her very own style, blending Jazz, Afro-Blues, African inspired rhythms, and Portuguese melodies into one timeless language of music. Throughout her career, she has won Awards for Best Newcomer, Female Performer of the year, Best Female Voice, Best uploaded on Get-out-there, and most recently for Multifaceted Artist.
She has also collaborated with and appeared worldwide in prestigious venues and festivals alongside musical greats, such as; Max Middleton, Chris Difford, Dick Pearce, Jeff Beck, Noel McCalla, Sara Tavares, Carmen Souza, to mention but a few.

Based in the UK, Maiuko is currently writing an album with guitarist & double bassist Alex Keen, violinist Paul Brasington  and special guest drummer Elias Kacomanolis, plus further exciting collaborations with world-renowned musicians.

Bass Player Alex Keen is an acclaimed Guildhall musician (accompanied George Shearing for the Masterclass South Bank Show) Throughout his career he has toured the UK extensively with the Theo Travis Quartet and the Philip Clouts Quartet. Collaborations with many established musicians including; Dick Pearce, Costello Quartet, Anita Wardell, Frances Knight Quartet, Tony Coe, Jim Mullen, Henry Lowther, John Etheridge, Pete King, etc…

Paul Brasington is a Folk and Jazz music reader and improviser in multiple genres, currently guesting widely in Hastings and East Sussex.

Event logistics

  • You are welcome to bring your own picnic mats, chairs, umbrellas, blankets, and sanitising gel.
  • Antibacterial wipes, sanitising spray and an outside toilet will be available to use.
  • Please bring your own masks or scarves.
  • Your are welcome to bring your own picnic and drinks.
  • We can provide tea, coffee, water.  Please bring your own glasses or mugs.
  • All donations will go to the performers and can be made when reserving a place.
  • Performances will be recorded for live streaming at a later date.
  • Capacity maximum 30 to ensure social distancing
4Sep 2020
News Comments Off on Whereness: Saturday 12th September, 5pm

Whereness: Saturday 12th September, 5pm

We are inviting some of our loyal members, friends and supporters to a live music event in a private garden in Kent on the weekends in  August and September.    If you are interested in attending please email events@equatorfestival.com.

Paul Cheneour (flutes) and Ansuman Biswas (tabla, percussion, strings) weave a musical synergy that comprises audience, time, place and being. They bring their full consciousness to the place they find themselves. This is music full of whereness.
Paul and Ansuman have been playing together in various contexts since 1996 and they are now expanding for the next incarnation of whereness, which features artists Maureen Wolloshin and Alistair Zaldua.
The music maintains a devotion to the live moment, a responsiveness to place and time through improvisation. It is a sound that transcends genre and culture; a sound that is as effortlessly soothing as it is provocative, a sound as resonant in the yoga studio as it is in the jazz club or the concert hall. It is a sound which arises spontaneously in the present moment, attuned to and arising from the audience and the environment.

Event logistics

  • You are welcome to bring your own picnic mats, chairs, umbrellas, blankets, and sanitising gel.
  • Antibacterial wipes, sanitising spray and an outside toilet will be available to use.
  • Please bring your own masks or scarves.
  • Your are welcome to bring your own picnic and drinks.
  • We can provide tea, coffee, water.  Please bring your own glasses or mugs.
  • All donations will go to the performers and can be made when reserving a place.
  • Performances will be recorded for live streaming at a later date.
  • Capacity maximum 30 to ensure social distancing
4Sep 2020
News Comments Off on Craig Ogden & Seren: Saturday 5th September, 5pm

Craig Ogden & Seren: Saturday 5th September, 5pm

We are inviting some of our loyal members, friends and supporters to a live music event in a private garden in Kent on the weekends in  August and September.    If you are interested in attending please email events@equatorfestival.com.

Australian born guitarist Craig Ogden is one of the most exciting artists of his generation. He studied guitar from the age of seven and percussion from the age of thirteen. In 2004, he became the youngest instrumentalist to receive a Fellowship Award from the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester.

One of the UK’s most recorded guitarists, his recordings for Virgin/EMI, Chandos, Nimbus, Hyperion, Sony and Classic FM have received wide acclaim.

Craig Ogden has performed concertos with many of the world’s leading orchestras. In recent seasons he has performed with the Hallé, BBC Concert Orchestra, Orquesta Sinfónica de Navarra (Spain), Spanish Symphony Orchestra, RTÉ Concert Orchestra (Dublin), London Philharmonic, Ulster Orchestra, Orchestra of Opera North and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic.  In 2015, Craig was asked at short notice to step in for the indisposed Miloš Karadaglić to perform a series of concerts with the Royal Northern Sinfonia at major UK concert halls and again in 2016 with the Royal Northern Sinfonia and the English Chamber Orchestra, both tours receiving critical acclaim. This season Craig performs concertos with orchestras including the Hallé, London Mozart Players, Manchester Camerata, English String Orchestra and the Darwin Symphony Orchestra, Australia. Craig enjoys performing new works for guitar and gave the world premiere of a concerto written for him by Andy Scott with the Northern Chamber Orchestra in Manchester in November 2017, followed by the Australian premiere in Perth in September 2018. He gave the world premiere of ‘Il Filo’, a double concerto for guitar and accordion by David Gordon with Miloš Milivojević in summer 2019 and composer David Knotts is currently writing a concerto for Craig.

Seren is Rebecca and Helen first met in 1999 where they were both studying at the Royal College of Music in London. They briefly performed together during their time at the RCM, and after nearly 20 years, have formed a new and exciting partnership.

Rebecca and Helen have gained wide experience as professional musicians, taking pleasure in performing as soloists, chamber musicians and orchestral players as well as being keen teachers, most notably at Benenden School and the Junior Department at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance. Their performing careers have taken them all over the UK, Europe and beyond.
They have performed in venues such as Wigmore Hall, Buckingham Palace, St. Martin-in-the-Fields Church, and St. David’s Hall, Cardiff.
Rebecca and Helen have collaborated with many different ensembles for projects such as recordings, such as the Appassionata Trio and Naiades Ensemble, and for education projects with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra and BBC National Orchestra of Wales.

 

 

 

 

4Sep 2020
News Comments Off on Sura Susso: Saturday 29th August 5pm

Sura Susso: Saturday 29th August 5pm

We are inviting some of our loyal members, friends and supporters to a live music event in a private garden in Kent on the weekends in  August and September.    If you are interested in attending please email events@equatorfestival.com.
Sura Susso is a creative, versatile and talented Kora player & Percussionist, who hails from a Traditional Griot family in Gambia West Africa.
He is the son of Mamudou Susso and Fatou Binta Cissokho, well-respected musicians in there own right and the younger brother of Seckou Keita who is also a accomplished and successful Kora player. Griots are historians, orators who hold family and village records. Praise musicians and singers pass this information down through the generations from father to son. Sura’s first initiation to the Kora was at the age of four. The Kora is a 21 stringed traditional instrument, which is able to transfer beautiful twined melodic & rhythmic tones. At the age of seventeen, Seckou Keita invited his younger brother to join him on tour, sharing his talent as a percussionist. Performing in many countries around the world, this gave Sura the opportunity to shape his skills and experience as a performing artist.
Sura’s impressive debut album merges original compositions with various musical influences as well as incorporating rearranged traditional songs. Exhibiting his talent in an assortment of countries, venues and festivals, Sura was invited to perform at an opening ceremony at Manchester City Hospital playing for her Royal Highness Queen Elizabeth II in 2012; he has also partaken in a number of joint ventures, collaborating with a variation of skillful musicians. In 2009 Sura and his Sister Binta Susso, had the privilege of performing at Glastonbury festival with the legendary Baaba Maal. Sura’s musical gift, once heard, is not easy to forget. His melodic style resonates deep within, transporting you far away to a harmonic place of sheer delight.

Event logistics

  • You are welcome to bring your own picnic mats, chairs, umbrellas, blankets, and sanitising gel.
  • Antibacterial wipes, sanitising spray and an outside toilet will be available to use.
  • Please bring your own masks or scarves.
  • Your are welcome to bring your own picnic and drinks.
  • We can provide tea, coffee, water.  Please bring your own glasses or mugs.
  • All donations will go to the performers and can be made when reserving a place.
  • Performances will be recorded for live streaming at a later date.
  • Capacity maximum 30 to ensure social distancing
15Aug 2020
News Comments Off on Diversity Arts Network – Diversity Training

Diversity Arts Network – Diversity Training

August 17 and 24th
2 – 3.30pm

Priti Paintal, chair of the Diversity Arts Network (DAN), has commissioned an introductory pilot workshop for members of the DAN. At a time when Black Lives Matter, and previously the Me Too movement, has put an even sharper focus on race and diversity issues, it is vital for all organisations to take a pro-active approach to race equality and broader diversity issues. The Covid-19 crisis has also brought into sharp relief these issues and many arts and cultural organisations face a time of great change and reset.

To start this process for DAN members, some of whom may already be addressing these issues, whilst other may be at the beginning of this journey, DAN has commissioned Kamaljit Poonia a Diversity Consultant and Leadership Coach, to facilitate two one and a half hour workshops.

Purpose of workshops:

To understand and explore:

  • how bias – conscious and unconscious affects decision making and how this can result in discrimination
  • understand race, racism and being anti-racist
  • start to develop actions to take a proactive approach to race equality and diversity

Each workshop will last for 1.5 hours, and will be facilitated to enable discussion and learning. It is envisaged that there will be an ongoing programme for DAN members to develop this work over a period of time. This will be considered after the pilot workshops to see the best way forward.

  • Workshops will be held on 17th and 24th August 2020,
  • 2 – 3.30pm.
  • Please book early – we will have about 8-10 places for this training.
  • https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/diversity-arts-network-diversity-training-tickets-115627315413events@equatorfestival.com
  • Facilitator :The facilitator for these sessions will be Kamaljit Poonia, who is a Diversity Consultant and Leadership Coach.

Kamaljit has worked on ED&I issues for over 15 years. She had headed ED&I teams in local authorities (Camden and Bristol), been a Diversity Advisor in the Civil Service (Department for International Development, Cabinet Office) and headed the ED&I team at the University of Southampton. She is also a trained and practicing coach. For the last three years Kamaljit has worked as an independent consultant with clients across the Arts and Cultural sector, Local authorities, and busines sector. In 2018 she was presented with a top 100 Global Diversity and Inclusion Leaders Award at the Annual Global HRD conference in Mumbai.

 

5Jul 2020
Pic credit: Smithsonian-National-Museum-of-African-American-History-and-Culture
News Comments Off on Diversity Arts Network supports Black Lives Matter

Diversity Arts Network supports Black Lives Matter

Diversity Arts Network supports the Black Lives Matter protests and urges all funders and major businesses to address the specific challenges and barriers faced by different ethnic and diverse groups.  The broad brush-stroke approach has not worked and some groups and communities have suffered higher levels of discrimination than others.  Funders and major companies need to themselves have a more racially diverse senior leadership to tackle these issues and break down barriers.
DAN suggest the following strategies amongst others should be put in place:
  1. Extended training and mentoring given to young BAME artists
  2. More support and funding given to younger BAME artists and groups to encourage them to form their own companies
  3. More experienced companies to act as mentors to help younger BAME artists and companies
  4. Local and regional networks to support and help profile younger BAME artists and companies
  5. 50% BAME Board membership to be mandatory for all organisations to tackle racism
  6. Peer assessments,  reviews and funding streams to have management teams with 50% BAME representation
  7. Funders and government bodies to seek specific sponsorship from major businesses to support BAME companies and artists
  8. All senior leadership and board members to have ongoing diversity and subconscious racial bias training
8Jun 2020
News Comments Off on Diversity Arts Network: Zoom meeting

Diversity Arts Network: Zoom meeting

Looking to the future: The New World
How to create, contribute, commission and promote in the future.

Tuesday 16th June: 2 – 3.30pm

What challenges do we face and how we can help shape the future? The DCMS have established a task force to look at how artists and arts organisations, museums, libraries can operate in the future and it has been criticised for its lack of diversity of its membership.

  • It is up to each one of us to feed into this national discussion – how will we need to adapt ?
  • How will these change affect us?
  • Who will lose out? How will artists from BAME backgrounds, or with disabilities or vulnerable conditions be affected?

Invariably smaller regional organisations and individual artists get left out in these national debates, and we should be able to communicate these challenges to key regional and national organisations and funders. For example how are community-led organisations with very limited budgets going to conduct large cultural events and festivals with social distancing measures in place? There are many challenges that face our sector, and working in partnership may become more crucial.Let us know if you would like to join this discussion and share your thoughts.
We are limiting numbers but plan to schedule further zoom meetings.

Let us know if you would like to join this discussion and share your thoughts. Register for Zoom meeting.

 

29May 2020
News Comments Off on Tango Workshops – Online

Tango Workshops – Online

Course: Tango Techniques and Style
Date: Fri 26 – Sun 28 June 2020
Tutor: Caroline Pearsall

Dive into the exotic world of Argentinian tango music with two 1.5 hour sessions daily –filled with romantic melodies, pounding bass and exhilarating syncopations. Tango is a rich fusion between Italian opera, Spanish habanera, African rhythms and Eastern European gypsy music.

Caroline Pearsall has been working as a professional tango violinist for the past 17 years, touring all over the world with various tango groups and shows and currently runs the London Tango Orchestra and Caminito Orchestra Escuela. This course will show you some of the unusual percussive instrumental techniques used in tango playing as well as introducing you to some of the most famous orchestral styles (Canaro, Di Sarli, Pugliese, D’Arienzo…). There will be some pieces by Astor Piazzolla and you will discover more about where he came from and the kind of interpretive freedom needed to fill his music with tango soul straight from Buenos Aires!

Tango music is filled with syncopations and dramatic phrasing, and has its own unique swing to it. You will learn about what makes tango tango and discover new ways of playing expressively on your instrument. Learning to play tango also invites you to learn more about improvising and discovering your own musical voice. We’re looking for strings, flute, clarinet, piano, bass and bandoneons (or accordions) to recreate the sound of a typical tango orchestra. The arrangements can be made to cater to all levels so if you fancy a bit of tango don’t hesitate to join us, whatever your level. Ability to read music necessary.

Find out more and book tickets