HMDT Music: The Open Fund for Organisations
For:
Trench Brothers 1918:2018
Trench Brothers is HMDT Music’s new music theater work by acclaimed jazz artist Julian Joseph and award-winning composer Richard Taylor set to a libretto by Tertia Sefton-Green. It commemorates the contributions of ethnic minority soldiers during the First World War bringing to life their hopes and fears, longing for home, camaraderie, courage and valor.
For the 2018 centenary commemorations, Trench Brothers will receive its first public performances at Brighton Dome, home of the WW1 Indian Military hospital, featuring MOBO nominated jazz singer Cleveland Watkiss, opera singer Damian Thantrey, puppetry, 300 local school children, Julian Joseph with students from the Julian Joseph Jazz Academy and an Indian tabla and sitar trio. A unique collaboration between composers from varied classical, jazz and world music genres, the piece will also include Letter Songs by composers Michael Betteridge, Jenny Gould, Matthew King, James Redwood and Omar Shahryar, created as part of the primary schools’ education project (dubbed ‘inspiring and imaginative’ by the Government’s WW1 Commemorations representative), running in London and Lancashire since 2014. The accompanying Trench Brothers exhibition – a creative response to the subject matter for all the family, will be shown at Newhaven Fort and National Memorial Arboretum.
Julian’s output includes operas ‘Shadowball’ and Bridgetower dance work ‘The Brown Bomber (PRS’s New Music 20×12), song-cycle ‘Windows into Tristan and Isolde’ and works for big band and symphony orchestra. Richard’s music-theater works ‘Flowers for Mrs Harris’, and ‘The Go-Between’ sit alongside his BBC orchestral commissions ‘The Man Who Planted Trees’ and ‘Services No Longer Required.