Does music about peace have to be peaceful? What does peace sound like in 2025?
What does peace sound like in 2025? Verity Watts unites world-class artists from contrasting musical, cultural and spiritual lives to hazard a guess.
Does music about peace have to be peaceful? In the gloriously diverse city of Bradford, where the first Peace Studies department was inaugurated and the Peace Museum now lives, PEACE finds musical commonality in the cracks and creates something beautiful by joining together contrasts.
Drawing on her creative catalogue, producer Verity Watts presents a radical and ambitious commission that brings together four artists to create a work featuring electronic sounds, rap, scratching, spoken word and bassline improvisation. It’s also fused with historic archive audio samples.
Collaborators include the world-champion turntablist DJ Woody; legendary jazz bassist Dave Kane; Bradford-born singer, rapper and songwriter Kenzo Jae and poet and spoken word artist Scout Tzofiya Bolton. Archive producer Anna Rhodes curates audio samples from Bradford that also feature in the music.
About this event
This New Music Biennial 2025 event is free, but ticketed. Seating is unallocated and tickets don’t guarantee entry: admission is on a first-come, first-served basis for those with tickets. Please arrive early to avoid disappointment.
This event includes two performances of the same work and a short interview with the creative team in between the two, enabling audiences to experience the second performance with greater insight into the creative process.
About New Music Biennial
New Music Biennial is a three-day festival celebrating the best new music across all genres from the country’s most exciting composers – and in 2025, for the first time, it’s coming to venues around Bradford.
Credits
Presented in partnership with PRS Foundation, Southbank Centre, BBC Radio 3 and NMC Recordings, and supported by Arts Council England.
