UYMP University of York Music Press

Sadie Harrison Awarded Vaughan Williams Foundation Grant for International Collaboration

29 July 2024

We are delighted that house composer Sadie Harrison has been awarded a substantial grant from the Vaughan Williams Foundation to support the UNCAGED (Illuminating Afghan women artists through music and dance) Project 2025-2026. 

Sadie writes: "We are so very grateful to the Vaughan Williams Foundation for their support of UNCAGED, a 2 year project bringing together artists, poets, musicians and dancers from Afghanistan, UK and the US in a celebration of the fantastic creativity of Afghan women artists."

"Over the past months we have been commissioning artwork from remarkable young ladies working secretly in Kabul, and from the Afghan diaspora with the help of Beyond Skin. The result is a collection of paintings that have inspired a new ballet score by myself to be performed by the Ekklesia Contemporary Ballet and Cuatro Puntos. Alongside traditional Afghan music, the new work will be premiered in the Bushnell Theater, Hartford, USA in April 2025, tour Connecticut and then come over to the UK for performances in England and Northern Ireland in March-April 2026.

"With arts funding being so precious these days, everyone involved in the project from the UK to USA to Afghanistan is so grateful. THANK YOU, VWF, for supporting us and for seeing the bigger picture!"

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