#CONNECT

A Cardiff University composer will conduct the world premiere performance of his new work to close the last night of the Music for Youth PROMS concert series. #CONNECT, written by Dr Daniel Bickerton of the School of Music, features 600 young musicians aged between 11-21 and will be performed on 16 November 2016 at the Royal Albert Hall. Dr Bickerton, working in collaboration with music services in South Wales including Gwent and Caerphilly, was commissioned by Music for Youth to write the piece as their concert grand finale. The performance line-up of approximately 400 vocalists and 200 instrumentalists will include a jazz ensemble, strings, percussion, SATB and junior voices, and will also feature dancers, beat-boxers and electro-acoustics. Designed to celebrate technological evolution, #CONNECT is a work in four movements, each focussing on a different aspect of technology. The opening movement concerns social media, with text taken from social media posts, and the others focus on television, mobile phones, and how we connect as a world through the internet. Timothy Johnston, a third-year BMus student, has been assisting with aspects of the production thanks to the Cardiff University Research Opportunities Programme (CUROP).