Delia Derbyshire Building blares symphonies of a mixture of orchestra/popular music

Coventry University sees students perform first of its kind Impossible music fusion.

Figure 1  Coventry University music students ahead of MixUp23 performance

Coventry Universities brand new Delia Derbyshire building saw MixUp23 showcase the biggest music fusion event yet. Students collaborated with The Orchestra of the Swan to perform a James Bond and Doctor who inspired production on Wednesday 8th of March at 4pm, displaying original songs and experimental sounds of popular and orchestral music.

Rich Hall, creative director of Popular Music and the MixUp23 event said, “It’s quite a collaborative event but I have been heavily involved in arranging students and facilitating the rehearsals and music created.

The idea of the show came last year when it was called MixUp22. The idea of mix up is that it mixes up popular music students and classical musicians to make a hybrid performance. What we decided to do differently this year was keep the focus on popular music and incorporate the classical musicians. We had less time with the classical musicians this year because of budget restraints. We had them in for a half-day workshop and threw ideas around and played song ideas and then we had a full day workshop rehearsal and then today. So, we really have had only 2 and half days, it’s been a really tight turn around.

The idea really is to get the students to think more outside the box and outside the limitations of typical guitar, bass, drums, vocals etc. and think musically have they can incorporate instruments like the bassoon, trumpet, cello, violin which isn’t quite common groups /you would have together. It gave students the opportunity to think what a bassoon is capable of? What sounds and ranges does a trumpet have? What additional melodies or musical elements does the instruments bring to the songs that we have written?

In many cases students had to transcribe and write out orchestral parts for the musicians to work with because typically classical musicians will work off printed written score whereas popular music tend to not write anything down. So, there’s one of the challenges, how do you take pop musicians who tend to think by ear and classical musicians who like to have it written down – how do you get them to work together? It has been a really fun challenge. 

It’s one of the first truly collaborative events that we’ve had. The course is only three years old, it started in lockdown so we couldn’t even be in the same room together. To go from that to now having a collaborative event, it’s been fantastic to see the journey of the students.

It’s opened their eyes to a broader musical spectrum. I’d like to see the event develop and move towards having a quintet or more string section maybe having their pop tracks and be performed entirely by classical musicians. The beauty of it is that there will always be new music and new ways of incorporating new instruments.

The Delia Derbyshire building has only started opening its doors up to students, so this seems like a good christening of the building. I’m really excited that the closing song is doctor who inspired which really ties into the building.”

The Delia Derbyshire building has only started opening up, so this seems like a good christening of the building. I’m really excited that the closing song is doctor who inspired which really ties into the building.”

Hours upon hours of hard work and practice had been required to pull off this spectacular event. With partnership with many Coventry University departments such as the students specialising in Music Technology who led the live sound setup. The students from the Events and Experience Management MSc assisted with the event’s marketing strategy. And the technicians who created the lighting specifically to enhance the performances. Everyone worked hard to collective setup Mixup23.

Figure 2 Rowan Power performing his new single 'Chasing Butterflies'

After a short amount of rehearsal time, students pulled together to create a professional-standard performance. They played an array of different songs from funky to heart-felt alongside the orchestra.

Rowan Power, second year popular music student played an original piece called “Chasing butterflies.” This emotional song was about wanting to have phone call with a loved one who had passed away. It incorporated a violin, cello from the Orchestra of the Swan. Rowan Power excitingly said, “The fact I get to play with these amazing musicians is a huge privilege and I love it so much!”

The music students look up to Stratford-Upon-Avon’s The Swan and are grateful for taking time out of their busy schedules to perform alongside them. The orchestra of The Swan perform numerous times a month around the UK.

One of the Orchestral violinists said, “I really enjoyed it; I think all the students really rose to the occasion since last year’s mix up. The improvement and the confidence, and the imagination and creativity has been really spectacular.”

To top it off, the event was a great way to premiere the new building Delia Derbyshire. The new Coventry University building was named in honor of Delia Derbyshire who made the soundtracks of Doctor Who and was a talented English musician and composer of electronic music. It’s very fitting to perform the infusion of classical and popular music in this building because the edgy construction of the building coinciding with late musician Delia Derbyshire ties the whole idea of music fusion together.

The last student to perform, Lia Powell, tributed their song to Delia Derbyshire. The song “Everlasting blue” was a beautiful love story and inspired from Derbyshire’s Doctor Who theme tune. It was a great ending to the showcase of exceptional performers at MixUp23.

The collaboration between classical music and popular music was phenomenal, with little time to prepare the two groups pulled off the impossible task of infusing classical and popular music to create a first-of its kind performance. Following MixUp23, musicians across the university will begin preparing new songs and new sounds ahead of next year’s event, which promises to be bigger and better.