ArtsTrain brings the house down at the London Jazz Festival 2019

This weekend Mytime Active’s ArtsTrain programme took to stages across London to perform as part of this year’s EFG London Jazz Festival. 

Our Music Leaders worked with a diverse group of young people from Bromley and Bexley to co-create original pieces of music to perform at the festival. It’s our most ambitious creative project across the year, and 2019 marked our tenth performance for the festival - this year at The Southbank Centre for a public performance and at The Albany Theatre in Deptford for an exclusive debut of their new music.

Our group this year was led by award winning artist Rahel Debebe-Dessalegne and producer James Yarde. The young people were propelled out of their comforts zones; collaborating for the first time with other young people from different musical and social backgrounds and challenged to push their creativity beyond all limits.

This year’s new music incorporate profound spoken word, triggered samples and complex instrumental arrangements. The theme responded to the global threat of Climate Change. Inspired by Swedish teenage environmental activist Greta Thunberg and the legions of youth activists working around the world. The young people’s music explored the fight to save the environment from a young person's perspective.