Copland 125 – A year long music festival in Bristol

For the last few years I have been thinking how I might celebrate the 125^th anniversary of Aaron Copland’s birth. I am now ready to share the vision for Copland 125!

The idea in brief

Copland 125 is a future facing, year-long, grass roots celebration of classical music in Bristol beginning November 2025. Copland 125 will principally focus on children listeners, young performers and aspiring composers and aims to take classical music far beyond the concert hall. The festival will utilise the close historic relationship between Bristol and USA in order to garner enthusiasm whilst increasing diversity and inclusiveness and widening the audience demographic for classical music. The festival will promote contemporary and recent music that reflects modern society and speaks about issues of our time. It will therefore help reframe classical music making it more relevant to young people.

Help me make it happen

We are about to submit our bid for Arts Council England Funding but we also need your support. If you

• Love Copland’s music and want to celebrate his life and legacy, or
• Are keen to hear contemporary music played more often, or
• Desire to disrupt the classical music scene (in a good way!)

then please donate to the Copland 125 Crowd Funding appeal.

In addition, I would love to hear from you if you have interest in helping out in any way – through a Crowd Sourcing initiative.

The challenge to change the status quo

Classical music audiences have a distinct demographic. The average age is over 60 with just 2% in the 16-24 age bracket. The likelihood is that only a tiny number of children/young adults from deprived communities have any relationship at all with this art form. This presents a blank canvas. Furthermore, it is difficult for venues to market concerts that don’t involve established classics that appeal to a particular type of listener. There are few opportunities for new, relevant sounds and pieces that reflect modern society and written by young composers to be heard. Consequently, not enough people, particularly young audiences are exposed to new music which inevitably means that an established and entrenched status quo remains. Copland 125 will put Bristol right at the epicentre of being part of the solution by disrupting the narrative and providing more opportunities to get contemporary and late 20th century classical music heard in places far beyond concert venues.

Why Copland?

Copland’s music is a perfect entry point to classical music. During his life Copland produced a great deal of “music for use” composing for ballets, films, TV, kids operas and youth ensembles. The progressive aims were to encourage young performers and provide a simple, accessible style introducing art music to a wider public. He also served as a teacher and a mentor to countless early career composers.

What the festival might look like

Copland 125 has three fundamental aims:

• To expose people to classical music especially those who don’t normally hear it
• To get kids engaging with this art – listening, playing and creating
• To ensure that new and recently composed music is experienced and enjoyed.

Here are some of the ideas that we intend to incorporate

• We will be running pop-up ensembles and choirs at shopping centres and prominent Bristol landmarks – people going about their business will get to hear great music.
• We are going to link up with the Bristol Flyers basketball team and Bristol parks community groups to create events where you can watch the players shoot hoops whilst an ensemble plays the soundtrack! Sounds a bit leftfield but Copland’s music was used as the soundtrack for Spike Lee’s He Got Game movie – it works!
• We will cross fertilise with other festivals such as Bristol Pride – Copland and many other American composers identified/identify as LGBTQ+. We’ll be looking to create a fanfare to celebrate this diversity with tremendous music.
• Bristol is the Hollywood of natural history film making. So much of modern classical music paints brilliant pictures – Copland and Bernstein were masters of this art. We want to work with local production companies in order to put animal magic to music and get it projected on walls and screens around the city.
• We want to work with the important musical institutions that are already doing great work in Bristol and piggy back on planned concerts. We want to get kids playing UK premieres of brilliant works like Joseph Schwantner’s New Morning for the World (Daybreak of Freedom) that sets the words of Martin Luther King. A hugely powerful, moving and inspiring work for Black History Month.

• We’re going to run competitions for new compositions. A Copland piece such as the Short Symphony will serve as the starting point for young composers to come up with their own ideas. We’ll work with the University of Bristol to put on two young composers showcases. We also aim to link with US colleagues and present opportunities for reciprocal performances of new works.
• Slap bang in the middle of Copland 125, there will be another big anniversary. July 4, 2026 is the 250th anniversary of US independence. Interesting to think that Copland is half the age of modern America! Bristol has plenty of historical connections with the US – good and bad. St Mary Redcliffe (which is the resting place of William Penn of Pennsylvania fame) will host an evensong of choral works.
• We’re going to run a competition for a young pianist to be mentored by Allan Schiller who was a Proms soloist at the age of 14. So, who better to act as mentor to hone a young talent? The winner will get to play on stage with Allan.
• Our house band will be the Sound World Ensemble. These guys play vital music by living, breathing composers. As the festival goes on people will realise that this isn’t as scary as it may seem. Move over Beethoven – we’ll be encouraging people to take off their ear muffs and embrace the new!
• Talking of scary, how about a Vampire ballet for Halloween? Surely, that’s got to get you interested. Copland is known for his ballets but the first he wrote (Grohg) will be 100 in 2025 and it has never been choreographed under Copland’s original plotline. Personally, I want to see that vampire come out of the coffin at the Gothic church, The Mount Without. I get goose bumps just thinking about it!
• If you like the comfort of a concert venue you won’t be left out – we’re looking to have conventional paid for recitals at St George’s, All Saints Church and the American Museum and free lunchtime performances at St Mary Redcliffe.
• We’ll be linking up with the Bristol Film Festival so you can see films that Copland scored. The Bristol Ensemble will perform live orchestral accompliment to the legendary documentary film The City.
• It wouldn’t be a birthday party without some fanfares. Over 6o different composers dedicated works or composed tributes to Copland. We’ll be playing some of them.
• Remember the link between classical music and basketball? Colleagues at the Bristol Beacon have previously used basketballs in concerts with up to 1000 children! They are keen to develop the link with Bristol Flyers and look at the possibility of developing further elements of percussion, rhythm and pulse as part of a mass choreographed performance. Now that sounds like fun!

Not from Bristol? Don’t feel left out

Do you remember Bernsteinat100? That became a worldwide phenomenon. If you are not from Bristol but still want to become part of this amazing initiative please contact me. I would welcome anyone in the world who is putting on a concert that shares the values and aspirations of Copland 125 to use our logo. All we ask is a small donation to the Copland 125 crowd funder.

One great thing to remember is that any time a Copland work is played revenue goes into the Aaron Copland Fund for Music. That is then distributed through a grants programme for new compostitions and to support performances of new and recently composed music. It’s a win win!

It’s just the beginning…..

Every great festival starts with one person with a vision. I want Copland 125 to be more than a year long roller coaster. I want it to become something important, impactful and enduring. I hope you like my ideas and can help get it off the ground and running!

Please don’t leave without visiting the Copland 125 Crowd Funder – remember small donations, however small can add up to a worthwhile sum and make a massive difference. Thank you so much!

Acknowledgment

Many thanks to Common Ground Communication who produced the Copland 125 logo for me on a no win no fee basis!