The Hope Project is a day of music being offered free of charge for the people of Newport to come and be comforted and inspired by beautiful minimalist music. It will take place in an empty shop in the city centre at Friars Walk on Saturday July 24, 2021. There will be three one hour concerts at 11am, 1pm and 3pm.
The first Hope Project back in November 2020 (between lockdowns) was a huge success. We had wonderful feedback from the people who experienced it and were asked to please do it again. We hope it will become a regular event in Newport and other city centres in South Wales and beyond. We are looking for a local business to become the official sponsor of the Hope Project but until we find one we are relying on your support once again to make this event happen. We need to cover the rental of the shop, the liability insurance and a small fee for the musicians. If you run a business or know of a business that you think would be interested in becoming our official sponsor please be in contact through our Facebook page.
Now, if you are new to The Hope Project and would like to know more, please read on..........
This idea began to develop in the early, frustrating summer of lockdown 2020 when I realised all my musical work was gone. As a freelance musician there was nothing on the horizon. I was listening a lot to Phillip Glass' music which I find very healing and comforting... I wanted to share this beautiful, healing music with others who I knew were also suffering in many ways. I approached some fellow musicians from the St Woolos Sinfonia to see if they'd be interested in putting together a program of minimalist/contemporary music to provide solace to the people of our city Newport. I found very sympathetic minds and hearts in my fellow musicians and we decided to do something totally free for the residents of Newport. Newport has been hit hard economically by Covid and there are a lot of empty shops. We felt a vacant shop would be the perfect venue from which to offer this music as it represents our desire to go into dark, empty spaces to bring beauty and hope to them. It also provides us with a large enough space that we can safely do this following social-distancing guidelines in a large and well-ventilated space. We approached the staff at Friar's Walk shopping centre to ask if we could rent a space for a day and thankfully they were happy for us to use the shop in a new and unique way. The public are invited to wander in for a moment of calm and reflection. They can stay and listen to just one piece or relax and listen to it all if they wish. We've planned to do three 1-hour sets throughout the day so that many people can wander in and out and experience the beauty of music.
"Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, a charm to sadness and life to everything." - Plato