After the Silence: Music in the Shadow of War

The Royal Northern College of Music (RNCM) has presented a series of large-scale off site projects includes ones at Manchester's Piccadilly Railway Station, Victoria Baths and last year's Sound histories at the British Museum. On 3 July they will be going to Imperial War Museum North, (IWM North) where, to commemorate the centenary of start of the First World War, 300 RNCM students will create a living installation, After the Silence: Music in the Shadow of War.

RNCM at the British Museum in 2013
credit Benedict Johnson

The event/installation runs from 3 July to 5 July and sees students throughout the iconic venue. Music featured will include major and minor works, from Elgar and Copland, to Paul Max Edlin and Penderecki's Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima, to Rautavaara's Soldier's Mass and Stravinsky's A Soldier's Tale, plus Messiaen's Quartet for the End of Time. There will of course be Butterworth's A Shropshire Lad, but there will also be Eric Whitacre, Steve Reich's Different Trains and new music inspired by klezmer music. There is a work for eight cellos by Martin Ellerby, written specifically for the RNCM and based on The Changi Murals.

In the cafe, there will be post-war Ragtime and Jazz Age. After the Silence is a total commemoration of sound and visuals, music, projections, interviews and film in an overwhelming experience you will not forget.

After the Silence: Music in the Shadow of War runs from 3 to 5 July, at IWM North, doors open at 6.30pm for a 7pm start. Further information and tickets (price £10) from the RNCM website.