New Sheffield school holiday concerts for kids fuse technology and music

Concerteenies: Loops celebrates how music-making can be influenced by new technology such as looping, famously used by Yorkshire-born singer Ed in his live performances.

Three concerts starring different musicians - from beatboxers to harpists - will take place at Site Gallery throughout August.

Polly Ives, founder of Sheffield music charity and event organiser Concerteenies, said: “We wanted to give families a fresh, fun musical experience in Sheffield during the holidays.

“Our Loops series takes some inspiration from Ed Sheeran’s visit to Sheffield Music Hub earlier this year.

“He was incredible with the young people there and spoke to them about persevering in music.

“In the concerts, we will fuse music with technologies used by Ed as well as other well-known artists like KT Tunstall.

“These technologies - including looping, which is repeating a section of music to build layers of sound - can help individual artists to be more creative without a full band.

“We have some exceptional musicians taking part so this will be a really special experience for families.”

Musicians joining the relaxed concerts for 0-7-year-olds include multi-instrumentalist, beatboxer and rapper James Lyons.

He is known for performing alongside The Dusterlings on CBeebies’ Justin’s House and will kick off the concerts on Wednesday, August 7.

Inspirational contemporary performer Polly Virr will bring her hypnotic work on the cello to Sheffield on August 14. Both she and James have performed at many leading festivals, including Glastonbury. And for the final concert on August 21, Sheffield-based Juliana Day and Manon McCoy will perform on the recorder and harp respectively.

The events are also part of the new Cyber Cafe exhibition taking place at Site Gallery.

This interactive display reimagines the creative potential of the Internet cafe of today.

It has been created by the gallery’s young people’s collective, the Society of Explorers, in collaboration with artists Antonio Roberts and Lucy Cheesman.

Together they have created screensaver-style visuals, photographic diaries and a sample pack made from field recordings around Sheffield.

The recordings have been developed into musician patterns through coding. Visitors will be able to interact with and remix the patterns when they visit.

Families can book tickets for Concerteenies: Loops now at https://www.concerteenies.com/events

Tickets cost £10.50 for adults, £4.50 for children aged over one and are free for babies.