Welcome to Surge in Spring III.
We are delighted to present you with a day of music ranging from community and youth bands to internationally renowned artists. Surge is a contemporary jazz, roots and folk Orchestra that collaborates with musicians from all genres and cultures and our festival presents our work alongside other musicians we love. We are grateful for generous support from Arts Council England, PRSF, BCU and British Council. Surge in Spring III launches a series of events to include collaborations and new commissions leading us to our next festival in 2020. Thank you to all the organisations and musicians involved and especially to everyone who comes to enjoy and support the music!
Composer & Artistic Director Sid Peacock
CD info
27th April is also the official release date for our 3rd CD -
Valley of Angels - Surge Orchestra. Featuring 25+ musicians and special guest Juice Aleem.
We are delighted to present you with a day of music ranging from community and youth bands to internationally renowned artists. Surge is a contemporary jazz, roots and folk Orchestra that collaborates with musicians from all genres and cultures and our festival presents our work alongside other musicians we love. We are grateful for generous support from Arts Council England, PRSF, BCU and British Council. Surge in Spring III launches a series of events to include collaborations and new commissions leading us to our next festival in 2020. Thank you to all the organisations and musicians involved and especially to everyone who comes to enjoy and support the music!
Composer & Artistic Director Sid Peacock
CD info
27th April is also the official release date for our 3rd CD -
Valley of Angels - Surge Orchestra. Featuring 25+ musicians and special guest Juice Aleem.
Main Theatre 7pm
Surge Orchestra
with Eimear McGeown, Niwel Tsumbu & Darren Milligan
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A new project from composer and musician Sid Peacock bringing together musical traditions of Ireland. Commissioned by PRSF the concert will feature classical/Irish flautist Eimear McGeown, Congolese guitarist Niwel Tsumbu and Ulster Scots piper Darren Milligan to perform with Sid’s Surge Orchestra. Expect a high energy performance form world class performers laced with traditional styles and infectious grooves. The concert will also feature support from the highly acclaimed When Traditions Meet project hosted by Culturlann and North West Community Partnership. “Surge Orchestra - Wildy creative, the best stuff I’ve heard in an age” Independent on Sunday "Eimear McGeown on Irish flutes sounded expert, bending notes in ways I have never heard before." Washington Post) "Niwel Tsumbu trades in good vibrations. His wayward incantations and surgically precise guitar lines are a breath of fresh air". --Jackie Hayden - Hoppers “Darren Milligan - Impressive pipe playing ..... stunning with a real dive and bite” Bright Young Folk.com |
Main Theatre 4pm
Kadialy Kouyate Band
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Kadialy Kouyate is a musician, a singer songwriter inspired by the West African Griot repertoire. Born into the great line of Kouyate Griot in Southern Senegal, Kadialy’s mesmerising kora playing and singing style have been appreciated in many prestigious venues as both a soloist and in different ensembles.
Since his arrival in the UK Kadialy has played a significant part in enriching the London musical scene with his griot legacy. He has been teaching the Kora at SOAS University of London for the last decade and he has also been involved in countless musical projects both as a collaborator and a session musician. This event is supported by Celebrating Sanctuary. |
Main Theatre 1pm
Mike Fletcher Jazz Orchestra
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The Mike Fletcher Jazz Orchestra began life in Birmingham in 2006 as a group of young musicians with a shared love of the long and varied tradition of big band music from Count Basie and Duke Ellington to Thad Jones and beyond. Since this time the focus of the project has evolved along with Mike’s interest in more experimental large ensemble composition, although still retaining a clear link to the music’s rich history. The 12-piece line-up is slightly reduced from the more traditional ’16 men swinging’, and makes for a more nimble formation that nevertheless retains the power of a full big band. In this concert they will debut a new suite of Mike’s music
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The Hexagon Theatre 
2pm - Germa Adan & Job Baker Sullivan
Germa Adan writes and performs a tapestry of rich vocal and stringed harmonies, influenced by the overlapping identity with cultures, especially so in the Haitian, American and British folk influences that colour her sound. 
3pm -
Richard Laird Richard Laird is a singer/songwriter for Londonderry, Northern Ireland.Richard has been composing songs and music for over 20 yrs around the theme of reconciliation,Ireland and World War One. 
5pm - Iryna Muha & Richard Scott
Richard Scott and Iryna Muha’s performance is their first commission as a duo centered around their shared interest in drone-based and harmonic European folk traditions. Richard is an artist and musician with interests in improvised experimental music and Scandinavian folk. Iryna Muha is a Ukrainian born singer, songwriter, hurdy-gurdy and guitar player. 6pm -Melinda Maxwell & Calum Armstrong
Melinda Maxwell and Callum Armstrong form a unique partnership to present music for ancestral and modern reed instruments: the ancient Greek aulos, the modern oboe and the bagpipes. The music is derived from their experience as improvisers, composers and performers in the worlds of folk, jazz and contemporary classical music.
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Courtyard/Foyer
12pm - Moseley Misfits
The Moseley Misfits is a community music group for adults who play any instrument to any ability. We play a mixture of folk, pop, film scores and pieces that have been collectively composed by the group. 
2pm - Jazzlines Ensemble
The Jazzlines Ensemble provides young musicians from Birmingham and the surrounding areas with the opportunity to develop their ensemble playing skills and learn more about jazz and improvisation through regular workshops and masterclass sessions. The sessions are open to young musicians of all abilities, from beginners to advanced and are free to young musicians aged between 11 and 19 from Birmingham and the surrounding areas 
3pm -BOA Jazz Bands
Birmingham Ormiston Academy is a specialist performing arts school in central Birmingham. Our BOA Jazz and Funk band rehearse every Friday with their band leaders Xhosa Cole (current BBC Young jazz Musician of the Year), Robbie Moore and Ray Prince, where they practise their own compositions as well as jazz standards. 
5pm - Mendi Singh & Eleanor Turner
Mendi Mohinder Singh is a classically trained tabla player-composer and a musical visionary, being one of UK's most celebrated tabla specialists with his activity within a variety of ensembles and bands taking him around the world. Mendi was born and brought up in Birmingham, UK, and has made unprecedented strides in bringing his instrument to a global audience. 
6pm - Simon King Organ Trio
The Simon Peter King Organ Trio features three top Midlands based musicians who play a groove-infused jazz that incorporates blues, funk and latin. Jim Bashford - Drums, Matt Ratcliffe - Organ and Simon Peter King - Guitar. |
Music Room 1
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2-4pm Ideas of Noise
Join Ideas of Noise for two hours of family friendly creative sound making in this drop in session. Kids old and young can experiment with electronic instruments, create graphic scores and explore experimental music making. Instruments will be provided but feel free to bring your own if you’d like! Workshop is free and suitable for all ages, children must be accompanied by an adult |
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5-7pm Riffs Launch
Join the Riffs Journal editorial team for live sound, writing and conversation to launch the ‘Ideas of Noise’ special edition issue. Riffs: Experimental writing on popular music is an emerging and exciting postgraduate journal at Birmingham City University. It offers a creative and experimental space for writing and thinking about popular music, in addition to an online forum for the publication and hosting of high calibre research in the area of popular music studies |
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The Hub - Room Art - A festival within a festival!
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Room Art is an independent art gallery in Birmingham, UK. They are also curators, producers and managers of art and music. They present a day along mini festival of events in the Hub space to include folk trio Threaded. See www.roomart.org for more info.
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