(Relocated)
Hello 👒
About a week ago I came back to London after spending 10 days working with Ethno England — still catching my breath, feeling happy and dizzy with wonderful music. Ethno England takes place every summer in Ramsden, a beautiful stone village on the North-East edge of the Cotswolds, surrounded by rolling green hills, soaring ravens and wildflowers… I recently found out that Ramsden means ''Wild Garlic Valley' which makes it even more romantic... 😍 Anyway, Ethno England is not about the pretty scenery - it is all about MUSIC !!! — Sharing songs and tunes, immersing in music, celebrating cultural diversity and building lifelong friendships. This summer Ethno England hosted around 20 participants and volunteers who came from all corners of the globe, Brazil, Estonia, Spain, Sweden, Germany, Portugal.. etc, bringing their instruments, voices, experiences and cultures with them. We all met for the first time Friday 14th of June, creating a mash of excited, nervous and bubbly textures, vibrant sounds and radiating expressions, not knowing what was to come, who we would befriend, what music we would learn or how it would all unfold.
The coming days consisted of tune learning workshops and intense rehearsals - arranging, discussing, playing, trying, understanding, learning, creating.. and every night was an endless musical jam exploring sounds from far and beyond, playing ‘human orchestra’, making ‘hug spirals’, telling stories and folk tales, making flower reeds, dancing and drinking scrumpy cider and sharing about everything between heaven and earth. One day we went to Oxford where Ethno England collaborated with some primary schools. We taught three different groups of children a song and a dance, and at the end of the day, everyone met to perform for each other. I was amazed how quickly all the children had picked it up, singing in Portuguese, Gaelic and Dutch - one little boy said it was the best day of his life!
After spending every day and night together for a week, teaching each other songs through peer-to-peer learning, the group, who had never met before, became an ephemeral transglobal orchestra, ‘Ethno England Band’, playing two crazy wild wonderful concerts. The first one was at Tap Social Movement in Oxford and then at the main stage of Tandem Festival, showcasing traditional music from over 15 different countries, connecting people across borders through the power of music.
Ethno England is part of a worldwide series of Ethno summer exchanges, Ethno World, taking place in over 20 countries, with a mission to revive and keep alive global cultural heritage and to promote peace, tolerance and understanding.
What are you waiting for - go to an Ethno !!!
💞
x Moa
Photos by @MayaMcCourt & @JasonWarner (GlassHertzzphoto)