United Strings of Europe: Send Back the Echo

Don’t miss the chance to hear the multicultural string orchestra that has burst onto the scene with its engaging, experimental programmes.

Today’s wide-ranging concert begins with music by the rising star composer Jessie Montgomery. Strum for quartet and string orchestra, which has notched up more than 100 performances to date, is an ideal curtain-raiser.

Next comes Jasmin Kent Rodgman’s haunting creation send back the echo, written for the ensemble’s film of the same title exploring issues around disability and social alienation. It premiered on BBC Arts and was selected for the London Short Film Festival.

send back the echo is not an homage to the myth or legend of Beethoven. It is a journey inspired by a deaf musician, which drives the overarching theme of this varied programme.

Beethoven’s personal letters and memoirs reveal a human story of intense passion, fear and joy as he reconciled solitude and deafness with a deep love of nature and music. These confessions, interpreted and performed in British Sign Language by Deaf actor Vilma Jackson, are accompanied by music from the film’s director and composer, Jasmin Kent Rodgman.

send back the echo invites a moment of reflection on the alienation faced by the d/Deaf community and people of colour within music, culture and the arts. ‘The many ways in which we can listen have never been more important,’ Rodgman says.

Gareth Farr’s Mondo rondo mingles catchy rhythms with striking pizzicato and body-percussion effects to evoke the m’bira (African thumb piano). And A little prayer also features Vilma Jackson and is a sensitive and imaginative score by percussionist Evelyn Glennie, arranged for string orchestra by I-han Fu.

Finally the ensemble performs Beethoven’s fiery string quartet, Op.95, in an arrangement by their artistic director, Julian Azkoul.