My role in Dialogue 2015, by Saied Silbak
“The Dialogue project has made the Barbican building come to life and I think this should become a habit!” – This is only one of the sentences I have heard from the audience after the performances of the different groups that took part in Dialogue. A sentence I completely agree with and hope comes true. Dialogue has been a great experience on different levels. I had the chance to work in three different groups that participated in dialogue, which meant being in different roles in each one of these groups.
The first group that participated in Dialogue and I had the pleasure of being part of it was ‘The Messengers’, led by Sigrun Saevarsdottir-Griffiths and Guy Wood. ‘The Messengers’ is a project in which a group of service users from St Mungo’s homeless charity come together with another group of students and graduates from the Guildhall School and create music together. Hearing about the project from different students made me curious as to how it may be. I remember having a lot of skepticism at the beginning of the project as to the music that`s going to be created during the process, simply because of the fact that participants came from what sounded like a harsh background and that made me wonder how things would go. To my surprise, the music created with ‘The Messengers’ was so beautiful and powerful that it still crosses my mind all the time and I find myself humming it! Most importantly, I enjoyed seeing the effect that music making had on the participants. Everybody was suddenly so interested in the process and felt so responsible for the pieces created. It seemed like people who had long been deprived of being responsible were suddenly so responsibly engaged and enjoying it in an indescribable way.
The second group I participated in was ‘(Im)Possibilities’, led by Paul Griffiths. This project involved mainly students from different departments of the Guildhall getting together and creating music either in the big main group led by Paul or breaking down into smaller groups and coming up with new pieces for the final performance in Dialogue.
For me it is always exciting to work with Paul as a leader and see his style of leading. I like his musical thinking and I learn a lot just by seeing him work, especially with such a big, diverse group of musicians. Getting to hear a big, round, fat sound - as Paul calls it - and getting an idea about how to get the most out of it, was an excellent experience as well as arranging music for this kind of ensemble and trying to blend the Oud with it.
The third and last group I participated in was a group of teenagers from Haggerston School. This was different because for this group I had to co-lead the group alongside fellow Leadership student Jack Derbyshire. This was the first time I actually had the responsibility of leading a project and although it was divided between Jack and me, it still required a lot of work and preparation. At the beginning the task seemed to be very difficult. Teenagers, especially those who sing, tend to be very shy and it takes a lot of time and effort to open them up and get them fully “out there”!
There was a decision between Jack and me to let the ideas come from these guys and indeed, they came up with amazing ideas that we only helped shape and arrange with the help of Paul and Sigrun who showed up to a couple of rehearsal to help with the singers who remained shy throughout the rehearsal.
I have to say, things remained a bit shaky and shy even during the last rehearsal. I remember standing in front of the whole group at the Barbican praying for things to go well. As I gave the first sign to start playing, everything just got into place so perfectly. It drew a big wide smile on my face. The singers were fully singing all of a sudden, the players were playing their roles exactly the way they were supposed to and everything sounded so tight and professional! At some point I swopped with Jack and he took over the leading which went perfectly as well!
In general, there was a good feeling about the whole Dialogue festival. People were happy and content. We got to experience how these processes can sometimes change participant`s way of thinking about certain issues and simply make everybody feel part of the music and proud for contributing to the process, even if it`s with one little note.
I believe this kind of projects makes us grow not only as musicians but also as human beings. It gives us a clearer idea about certain things and certain stations we pass through in life. I will not share the personal outcomes that I got to by simply working with different people and knowing some details about them, but it made me think about where I am in life both as a human being and a musician and I certainly hope to be more and more involved in these kind of projects throughout my Leadership studies in the Guildhall School.
