De Mowbray Music
De Mowbray Music was founded in 2020 by Benjamin and Emily Taylor as a way to build on the already vast array of arts in the thriving area, and ensure music is at the forefront of the local conscience.
This season, De Mowbray helped curate the inaugural Thirsk Hall Festival, several come and sing / play events as well as a fantastic audio-visual project, “The De Mowbray Songbook” – more info below.
Visit De Mowbray Music’s website to explore Benjamin’s music community based music project in Thirsk, North Yorkshire.
The De Mowbray Songbook
The ‘De Mowbray Songbook’ is originally a collection of short musical compositions by award-winning composer Benjamin Ellin. Written at the start of the UK lockdown in 2020, each piece is a short snapshot of Benjamin’s new surroundings of Thirsk, North Yorkshire within a world that had changed so completely.
Following a social media call from Benjamin and Rural Arts in Thirsk,
a community of local and regional artists, working in different mediums, signed up to create their own response to a chosen track from the songbook without knowing the background, name or inspiration for the piece; they just had the music itself, without any context.
Following a social media call from Benjamin and Rural Arts in Thirsk,
a community of local and regional artists, working in different mediums, signed up to create their own response to a chosen track from the songbook without knowing the background, name or inspiration for the piece; they just had the music itself, without any context.
The project is a communion of visual art and music as well as a celebration of community; originally separated through Covid but united in creativity. The aim is create further songbooks complete with visual artistic responses in the coming years.
An exhibition was held and book of the artworks was produced. Below are a few examples of art produced by the local artists and some of the music that inspired them (Click to see larger images of the artwork):
- Tok Tuk By Benjamin Ellin (Electric Bass Guitar; Joseph Nickson) 8:00
- Blakey Point By Benjamin Ellin (French Horn; Mark Bennett) 4:42
- Rania’s Dance By Benjamin Ellin (Percussion; Jonathan Grogan) 6:47
- Coed Beck By Benjamin Ellin (Oboe; Rachel Chaplin) 3:42
Get in touch if you would like to find out more, or are interested in future projects.