Tinderbox Orchestra

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28 Jan 2023 Blog, Instrument Libraries, Tinderbox Orchestra, Youth and Community Tinderbox Orchestra, Youth & Community

Central Music Library Launch Gig – 28/1/23

Tinderbox Orchestra kick started the year with a gig & open mic session at central music library, launching the ‘We Make Music’ instrument libraries initiative! The orchestra filled the library with music and awe, and opened a space for the audience and other local musicians to get up play, jam, and share some songs. There was some beautiful poems and solo, a cappella singers from the library, cool and intense punk-rock from some young people from our Tuesday Hub/Sparks courses, and impromptu jams and singer/songwriters – a great start to the instrument library!

If you would like to borrow a musical instrument you can visit any of the following libraries: Central Music, Moredun, Wester Hailes, Craigmillar, Drumbrae, & Muirhouse!

Or, if you would like to donate an instrument, feel free to contact these libraries to arrange a drop-off 🎷

27 Sep 2021 Blog, Tinderbox Orchestra Music For Bridges, Sink, Tinderbox Orchestra, Youth & Community

Music for Bridges

Tinderbox Collective

What a beautiful Sunday afternoon we had on September 12th.

All around the parks, cycle paths, and bridges of North Edinburgh, we had music flowing all around for a thousand people to hear!

The Tinderbox Orchestra took to Victoria Park with a solar powered sound system, a summery gazebo, and all of their instruments held high; hundreds of people turned up, kickstarting the day with kenspeckled revelry. See the featured image for some pre-show crowds…

Afterwards, the orientation began. With the help of a beautiful map designed by Rhona Sword, the crowd was lead away from the park… for further festivities awaited. Down the disused railways of Edinburgh, now known as the cycle paths, there lay a busking trail! Stationed under each bridge towards Pilton were buskers playing for the cyclists passing by, as a wee surprise for routine walkers, and for those who followed the map and found their way to musical gems. I had the honour of performing there myself, and it was so wonderful to be part of such a unique experience and having the opportunity to chat away and play with and for the community.

On a separate path there lay even more – deep down within the trinity tunnel you could hear the new duets composed by Neil Smith, the one who inspired and influenced the whole day! Neil had composed some site specific duets for Trinity Tunnel, with one musician at one end and another at the other, you could walk through the tunnel and listen as the two distant composers played together; filling the space with rich, vibrant textures.

On the other side of Victoria Park, down by the Water of Leith, there is a space I can only describe as a perfectly secret little stage: The Balcony. There we were graced by the presence of S!NK who gave yet another stunning, improvised set brimming with musical surprises – so much joy and energy from the trio. I have to agree with BBC Radio 3’s Max Reinhardt when he says S!NK really are “Very, very brilliant indeed.”

It’s hard to believe that the day just kept going, but no energy was lost down by The Weir. The afternoon was concluded with one big jam session as all gathered down by The Water of Leith. We had some extra performances from the buskers, the orchestra got together again to perform Neil Smith’s “Vigil” and more, and we had some astonishing, dare I say… flabbergasting, performances from the public – honestly unbelievable, amazing. It was so heartwarming to see so many folk come together to celebrate some live music again, but also to use that creativity to celebrate these beautiful spaces tucked away in the corners of Edinburgh.

All in all, it was a truly unforgettable day overflowing with music, art, and creativity, but I believe binding it all together was this connection felt with each other and with the city.

Liam Dempsey

1 Sep 2020 Sights and Sounds of Isolation Tinderbox Orchestra, Youth and Community

Shadows At Night

Tinderbox Collective

Songwriting projects are one of the staples of the Tinderbox creative music offerings. They are a brilliant way to show how everyone has an abundance of musical creativity, no matter what age, experience or background. It’s also very handy if you have a large team of experienced musicians and an entire orchestra to add into the mix once you have a finished song.

Lockdown presented a great many challenges, but also some surprising opportunities. The Shadows At Night songwriting project has been one of these opportunities.

At the very beginning of lockdown we started a songwriting group as part of our online music school. We quickly found that the Zoom chat function is an ideal way to collaborate on lyric writing. Over 3 or 4 sessions the young people came up with the lyrics, melody and structure of the song.

Once we had a rough recording of the song to click track we were able to take it to the Tinderbox Online Orchestra who were rehearsing every week. We shared the recording on Zoom audio and had a few practices through the track. Then orchestra members recorded themselves improvising along to the track on their phones or whatever recording device they had to hand, and sent in their recordings. The tracks were then compiled, edited and mixed by Garry Boyle at Slate Room Studio. All this happened within the space of a week!

We were so excited by the end result that we decided to take it further and asked Dominika Jackowska to facilitate a project to produce an animation for the song. Dominika is part of our Tinderbox Lab project and had been working on animation for online game design projects. She led a series of workshops to enable young people to generate the content for the animation and also to show them how the animation process works.

It has been such a rewarding project and we hope you enjoy checking out the song!

Thanks to everyone involved including the Tinderbox Songwriting group, Tinderbox Orchestra and Dominika Jackowska. Special mentions to Sophie for lyrical inspiration and Julia Dorozynska on lead vocals.