‘Untold’ is told in music in Gorton Monastery setting

Gorton Monastery is to host the first of a groundbreaking series of concerts by the Manchester Camerata telling moving and touching stories about people within the community.

The first will be broadcast on Thursday, October 1, at 8pm in the first of a brand new series of online films to be screened on United We Stream. 

Commissioned and curated by the orchestra during these unprecedented times – the Untold series will tell the personal stories of real people in the community through film, storytelling, prose and of course music, all performed from the stunning setting of The Monastery in Gorton.

Directed by award-winning Northern filmmaker Paul Sapin each film in the Untold series tells a different story, with each one bound by the same goal - ‘to heal through music’. 

The series will spotlight the universal themes of identity, belonging, loss, love, community and inequality with music performed by Camerata musicians at the heart of each tale.  

Untold begins with the story of ‘Caroline’, one of Camerata’s violinists and co-leaders Caroline Pether.

She will reveal her own struggle and journey to acceptance as a gay, Christian woman in a moving and deeply personal film set to music by Haydn, Arvo Pärt, Strauss and Harbison, performed by Caroline and her fellow Camerata musicians. 

This opening film also features original spoken word written and performed by poet and Scots Makar Jackie Kay, a Chancellor of the University of Salford.

Untold marks a bold and creative departure for the orchestra fusing music, spoken word, film and multi camera work for the first time and at a time when live performance is heavily restricted. 

Subsequent films to be made in the series - for which Manchester Camerata is currently fundraising and seeking donations - will feature both Camerata musicians and collaborators including music director Gábor Takács-Nagy  and musician Peter Hook. 

The series will reveal personal experiences of early onset dementia, repatriation, identity and stories of renewal and reinvention.

Gábor says: “After this crazy time, when the whole world was sick, more than ever music is needed to serve as a spiritual medicine to help the healing process. 

“And with these films created by and with our orchestra, our musicians and our collaborators, we very much hope our music, our stories and our personal revelations can reach out to show people not only are they not alone, but that we can all come together wherever we are bound and united by music as therapy, as comfort and as joy.”

You can find more information online at  https://unitedwestream.co.uk/ and view a trailer on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bEY83WnHHLY&feature=youtu.be