Founded in 2016 as an inspiring community response to division in the UK, Europe and worldwide, COMMON AND KIND celebrates its Fifth Anniversary at the Round Chapel on Thursday 15th July.
This spectacular concert brings together world leading solo artists from across the musical spectrum with school children, refugee groups and choirs from across London.
Six sensational solo acts will appear throughout the evening, along with the choir. The solo roster features Olivier award-winning star of the West End; Cassidy Janson, percussion pioneer Bernhard Schimpelsberger, virtuoso violinist and leader of Britten Sinfonia Thomas Gould, Bengali pop icon Saida Tani and a live stream from New York with soul sensation J. Hoard.
Featuring a choir of 400 people every year since 2016, this year’s event will be a trailblazer for safe, socially-distanced singing in Covid times, with a socially-distanced choir of 60, combined with recorded elements; showcasing just how the culture industry can respond creatively to the unprecedented challenges of the pandemic.
The concert will also feature the premiere screening and live choir performance of a new single in support of the UNHCR featuring Gwilym Simcock, Justin Stanton of Snarky Puppy and the Pihcintu International Refugee Girls Chorus.
Since its creation, Common and Kind have brought together thousands of people across the UK and worldwide in support of refugee groups and asylum seekers, creating partnerships between schools in Hackney, Newham, Haringey, Tower Hamlets, Enfield, Barnet and Brent and enhancing connections between communities using the inspiration of music from a diverse range of genres to show that, in music as in wider society, we have more in common than that which divides.