Manchester Camerata: Untold

Starting this October, Manchester Camerata – “Britain’s most adventurous orchestra” (The Times) – will broadcast a fascinating new series of films via United We Stream.

Entitled Untold, the series will feature intimate portraits of real people from the local community, delivered through storytelling, prose and of course stunning music courtesy of Manchester Camerata. Curated by the orchestra during and for these remarkable times, the series will focus on universal themes such as identity, belonging, loss, love, community and inequality.

The first film, Caroline, is directed by award-winning filmmaker Paul Sapin, and will be broadcast at 8pm on 1^st October. It focuses on one of Camerata’s violinists and co-leaders, Caroline Pether, and her journey towards acceptance as a gay, Christian woman.

Being a Camerata project, music lies at the heart of the film. Caroline and her fellow Camerata musicians are seen performing works by Haydn, Arvo Pärt, Strauss and Harbison in the magical surroundings of The Monastery, a 19th-century former Franciscan friary in Gorton. The opening of the film also features poet and Scots Makar, Jackie Kay, who helps to tell Caroline’s story through original spoken word.

Untold’s fusion of artforms marks a bold departure for the orchestra, who have found a typically creative way to adapt to the times. Gábor Takács-Nagy, Camerata’s Music Director comments: “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.”

Dates for the rest of the series are yet to be announced, but we’re told that one film will feature Gábor Takács-Nagy, and another, Peter Hook (Joy Division, New Order). We’re also told that subsequent films will reveal personal experiences of early onset dementia, repatriation, identity as well as stories of renewal and reinvention.

Given the economic uncertainty that looms over the whole arts and culture sector at the moment, the completion of the series is contingent on financial contributions from the public. In order to secure their survival and recovery, Camerata have launched an urgent appeal to raise £250,000. Reaching this target would not only offset the cumulative loss of income from cancelled performances, but it would also mean that the orchestra, which, as a registered charity delivers award-winning health and wellbeing work, can keep making a positive impact during the pandemic.

If you’d like to make a contribution, email Paul Davies, Head of Communications & Development, on pdavies@manchestercamerata.com.