A year has passed since a number of the service users of Flower Lane did a special performance with the world-renowned London Symphony Orchestra (LSO) on stage at the Barbican. But this year the roles were reversed.
This year, however things were a little bit different and London Symphony Orchestra went to Flower Lane and did four music sessions with them recently. Flower Lane’s flock had a fantastic time and their enthusiasm even rubbed off on one of the musicians who facilitated the day.
LSO’s vocalist, Lucy said: “I just wanted to drop you a note to say how much I enjoyed coming to work for a few sessions at Flower Lane with LSO, and a massive thank you for the warm welcome. What you do and, more importantly, the way you do it is amazing, and I learnt such a lot from you and your team. I really appreciated the opportunity to do this, and was so grateful for your support and joining in with all the songs. I really do hope there will be a chance for me to come back and see you all again sometime soon. Thanks so much for making me feel welcome. I loved being a part of it and meeting everyone there. Wonderful people.”
The service users of Flower Lane have been attending the ‘First Monday Club’ which is a free session provided by the London Symphony Orchestra at St Luke’s in Old Street.
Through this LSO applied for funding to provide an outreach programme that one of Flower Lane’s most ‘famous’ service users, Michael went to – this led to further funding and LSO was able to use to visit organisations like Flower Lane and provide music sessions there.
The sessions held at the centre meant that other service users got the chance to experience an LSO session as the outings to St Luke’s are limited to six people.
And here’s a wonderful Throwback Thursday moment when four of our service users from Flower Lane got to perform Stravinsky’s ‘Rites of Passage, which proved to be a ‘personal best’ for Gary, Michael, Sorya and John.
Goes to show once again, that music is the universal language of mankind.