We could not stop smiling! Just 36 hours earlier I was in a dreary office, and Tim Steiner, our Workshop Leader was conducting a chorus of singers in a church in Bedford. Now we were in a piano factory in the mountains of Azerbaijan experiencing the music of an extraordinary orphanage brass band from Baku.

RPO resound have collaborated with the British Council before on projects, and this time we seized the rare opportunity of the orchestra being in one place for ten days whilst on tour. I invited Tim to lead the project, and we set out to run four days of creative workshops all culminating in a live performance, closing the music festival in style.

Expecting big language issues we steeled ourselves for repetitive demonstrations and exaggerated hand signals, however you can never underestimate the power of music as a communicator, especially with such a dedicated group (who get up at 5am to practise – in fact getting them to not practise and rest their lips was the challenge!). We’d send our principal trumpeter Brian Thomson off armed with only his trumpet, no translator, and within 15 minutes he’d return with a new melody written by the trumpeters. It demonstrated to the whole education team the essential workshop skills we were honing out here (confidence, demonstration, conducting, encouragement), and how effective they can be with any participant group – fewer words, more music. We all agreed the experience would augment our work back in the UK, even in the most challenging situations, because music became the key to communications.

As the first creative music project Azerbaijan has seen, we were nervous that we’d only get a small crowd. However, we were overwhelmed to find the entire audience – including our fellow musicians from the RPO arriving 45 minutes early to watch us.

To start the gig Tim handed the reins over to 70 year old conductor Rafael – this guy was exceptional, not only having founded the orchestra 35 years ago, but he is so dedicated to the cause he even lets the orphans stay in his own home when there’s no room at the inn. So Rafael kicked off the performance with a well known tune ‘My Azerbaijan’ – the idea was to start the audience in familiar territory, before introducing our new pieces which fused western grooves with more traditional melodies. After a few initial raised eyebrows and sceptical faces, we were delighted to watch the audience soften, the foot-tapping commence, and huge smiles growing as Tim initiated the dance routine part of the piece – not something the traditional Azerbaijani concert goers were used to! It’s hard to resist a grin when you watch skinny 15 year old Tamerlan with a huge sousaphone wrapped around his entire torso, grooving along to the new funky bass line he’d written and dancing at the same time.

20 minutes later, and the reception was electrifying with tremendous applause from the entire audience. As we gathered behind the stage with the participants, it was clear that all fears about how their new music would be received were completely dispelled, with many of the young people overflowing with emotion. Joy at the result, and poignant tears of sadness at it being the end of the project.

Heading down into town for our final farewells, the enthusiasm which greeted us was such a positive indication of the impact of our work this week in Gabala. And not just in the hearty handshakes we received, but in the desire to share music and cultural references, the exchange of addresses for posting CDs and scores, the honour of invitations to their next big event celebrating 35 years of the band, and the questioning from the older musicians about how to become a professional musician in British orchestras. Remarkable – as all it took was four days in Azerbaijan.

Ruth Currie is the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra’s Community and Education Co-ordinator.
Find out more about the work of RPO resound