Re-imagining a classic work with jugglers, exploring disability through art, and commissioning new music from minority ethnic composers are just some of the ways the United Strings of Europe is promoting diverse voices in music. As they release their debut album, Artistic director Julian Azkoul reflects on the ensemble’s drive to connect disparate musical cultures.

In a dusty camp on the south side of Beirut we sidestepped live wires and broken glass on the way to our next performance for a group of young refugees. While the classical programme of Grieg and Vivaldi had been a hit in other parts of the country, this time we were not connecting with our audience. I tried to explain how an ensemble works and the key role that mutual respect, especially amongst musical colleagues, plays in enabling a fine performance. To bring this point home, we demonstrated what a disrespectful performance might be like. Their eyes lit up, the mood relaxed considerably, and they laughed at some of our more outrageous musical caricatures. Exposing some of the vulnerabilities of live performance had won them over; the rest of the programme was enthusiastically received.

Harnessing this feedback loop between performer and audience has galvanised the United Strings of Europe’s approach. Drawing on our mixed heritage and wide-ranging interests, our goal is to create original experiences that bridge cultural divides. To mark Beethoven’s 250th anniversary and the 25th anniversary of the UK Disability Discrimination Act, we commissioned a work from the young composer Jasmin Kent Rodgman that explores Beethoven’s struggle with hearing loss.

When the pandemic scuppered our performance plans, Jasmin suggested making a film of the work with deaf actor Vilma Jackson narrating in British Sign Language the text from Beethoven’s letters about alienation and isolation that had inspired the composition. This moving story about hearing loss and the inability to communicate has opened our eyes to the different ways that art is experienced and how the disabled are often overlooked (called Send Back the Echo, it will be released online in mid-December).

With music from three continents and four different centuries, our debut album In Motion evokes compelling scenes ranging from the streets of 18th-century Madrid to a contaminated atomic weapons site in Australia. The album exemplifies the ensemble’s approach of promoting new music and re-contextualising familiar repertoire. Our world premiere recording of Australian composer Matthew Hindson's Maralinga (2009), featuring New Zealand violinist Amalia Hall, reflects on controversial plutonium tests the UK carried out in Australia in the 1950s and '60s on sacred Aboriginal lands and the impact this had on the indigenous population as well as on the unwitting Australian service personnel (the irony of recording this work in London was not lost on the composer or the ensemble). We paired this with Swiss composer Arturo Corrales’s Señores les voy a contar... (2010), a work inspired by the legends of his native El Salvador.

The United Strings of Europe performing at Conway Hall

The album also features arrangements of chamber music works I refashioned for string orchestra, heightening the contrasts in Schubert’s Quartettsatz and upgrading Boccherini’s flirt with popular music in his Musica Notturna delle Strade di Madrid with Middle Eastern and blues/country improvisations. The album is capped by our adaptation of New Zealand composer Gareth Farr’s string quartet Mondo Rondo (1997), inspired by African and Latin American rhythms and the composer’s background as a percussionist.

We were very lucky to record the album shortly before the first lockdown. Signing a multi-record deal with BIS Records on the strength of this first recording at the height of the pandemic was a shot in the arm when so much of our work and that of our colleagues was being cancelled or postponed. Our next album Renewal will feature new arrangements for string ensemble of music by Gesualdo, Stravinsky, Golijov and Mendelssohn, and a collaboration with soprano Ruby Hughes.

Globalisation, it is said, makes the world smaller, but the artistic landscape musicians can roam today has never been greater. Despite the setbacks of 2020, we are optimistic about the future. We hope to keep surprising you.

United Strings of Europe’s debut album ‘In Motion’ is available on BIS Records. You can stream or sample the apple below via Apple Music.