Recorded across spaces at London’s Guildhall School via low-latency technology and broadcast via the school’s website, the Guildhall Studio Orchestra Celebrates Motown concert featuring arrangements by Guildhall School Head of Jazz, Malcolm Edmonstone of well-known songs – including ‘Isn’t She Lovely’, ‘You Can’t Hurry Love’ and ‘Don’t Leave Me This Way’. The event also provided an opportunity for students to work with ground-breaking streaming and broadcast technology.
Over recent years, Guildhall School has made a significant investment in its streaming and broadcast capabilities including new NDI video and Dante Audio Networks which enable low-latency collaboration between performance and teaching spaces in the School.
Founded by Berry Gordy Jr, in Detroit in January 1959, Motown, also known as Hitsville, is one of the most successful Black-owned businesses and one of the most influential independent record companies in American history. The even’t guest compère will be self-professed ‘transformative storyteller’ Alain ‘Fusion’ Clapham, who has presented shows for MTV and Sky, hosted events at Wembley Arena and interviewed the likes of Beyoncé, Dr Dre and Marvel-mastermind Stan Lee.
The Guildhall Studio Orchestra involves students in all year groups, undergraduate and postgraduate students, from four of the Music Departments in the School – Jazz, Woodwind, Brass & Percussion, Strings and Harp – and is one of the largest cross-departmental performance projects that the school undertakes. The Studio Orchestra aims to provide studio and session-specific experience and training to students from different musical backgrounds. The students who take part develop their versatility and employability in the studio environment.
During the global pandemic, the technology allowed Guildhall School’s prestigious Gold Medal competition to take place with social distancing, with musicians performing across four different spaces in two buildings at the school and synced using ground-breaking low latency technology. The network, connecting 22 rooms across the school buildings, allows musicians in different spaces within the school to play with virtually no delay in audio and video, and it is believed that Guildhall School is the first institution in the world to use this technology for the rehearsal and performance of a full orchestra.
This technology supports the work the Recording and Audio-Visual department has already undertaken in building a world-class Solid State Logic audio mix facility, as well as a state-of-the art TV Studio control room, that allows for streaming and broadcast from 30 venues and classrooms within the school.
‘While the Dante and NDI networks allowed the orchestra to play synchronously across different spaces within the school, the infrastructure used on that network – 16 cameras and 80 channels of audio – gives our students valuable experience of working in an environment akin to a large TV studio recording,’ says Guildhall School Head of Recording and Audio Visual, Julian Hepple. ‘Developing performance skills for a studio environment is vital for our students. Projects such as this ensure that Guildhall musicians are trained for all aspects of the profession.’
Guildhall Studio Orchestra Celebrates Motown forms part of Guildhall School’s Spring Season of events, both in-person and broadcast via website. Other spring performances by the Jazz Department will include a performance of Jim McNeely’s Paul Klee Suite (3 February, 7pm); a concert featuring repertoire from Duke Ellington’s legendary 1940’s Carnegie Hall concert with saxophonist Tony Kofi on the baritone-sax chair (18 February, 7pm); a performance by Guildhall Big Band of Benny Carter’s Kansas City Suite featuring alto saxophonist Colin Skinner (25 March, 7pm); and Guildhall Jazz Orchestra being joined by composer, pianist and Guildhall Jazz professor Nikki Iles in a concert featuring Iles’ arrangements and compositions for big band (29 March, 7pm). All events can be found on Guildhall School’s events page.
The broadcast of the Guildhall Studio Orchestra Celebrates Motown performance will be available to watch for free from 26 January until 2 February on the Guildhall website.
More: www.gsmd.ac.uk
