The Ha Orchestra Story
Starting from Glasgow 2014, The Commonwealth Games
…in January 2014
Ha Orchestra and The Commonwealth Games – Glasgow 2014
Ha Orchestra was founded by Dr Gameli Tordzro with funding support from Creative Scotland and Glasgow City Council.
leading up to The Games’ Cultural Festival, ‘Glasgow 2014’, Ha Orchestra was set up to create a welcoming environment for the pan-African contingents preparing to arrive in Glasgow for the Games. The Orchestra provided an African symphonic orchestral experience to the Cultural Festival, performing Gameli Tordzro’s compositions on all the major stages during the games. They were featured on the stages of BBC at The Quay, Glasgow Green, Merchant’s Square, the newly refurbished Kelvingrove Band Stand and Queen’s Park for the Queen’s baton relay finishing line.
Copenhagen November 2015
In 2016 we were supported by the Danish cultural fund Statens Kunstfond to meet and recruit more musicians from Europe. In an enriching programme of rehearsals, performance workshops and showcase concerts we met and engaged with new members based in France, Belgium, Ghana and Scotland
KLM, Inverness 2016
KLM commissioned the Orchestra to perform at the launch of its new route from Inverness to Amsterdam. The Orchestra presented an outstanding outdoors concert and an open free community engagement workshop in the centre of city to a large excited participating crowd.
Dodowa, Ghana 2017
Broken World Broken Word Music & Dance Piece and Documentary Film
Ha Orchestra was involved in the University of Glasgow’s UK Arts and Humanities Research Council (UK AHRC) research project Researching Multilingually at The Borders (RM Borders). The orchestra worked with community artists at Dodowa from the NOYAM African Dance Institute as part of the Creative Arts and Translating Cultures Hub of the project to translate academic research into a co-devised production of music dance and textiles ‘Broken World, Broken Word’ (BWBW). Subsequently the orchestra was invited to perform at the University of Glasgow as part of the inaugural lecture of the first UNESCO Chair in Refugee Integration Through Languages and The Arts (UNESCO RILA)
Ha Orchestra played an important role with the development and playing music composed by Gameli Tordzro for the production of ‘Broken World, Broken Word’. (BWBW). This documentary film was also directed and produced by Dr Gameli Tordzro. It combines interviews with artists, academics and performers with the documentation of the co-creating processes, and the performance of BWBW.
Professor Charles Forsdick who led the UK Arts and Humanities Research Council’s Translating g Cultures Theme says, What I’ve seen is an incredible multilingual, multinational group of people, I think in addition to those from the communities here in Ghana there are about thirteen different nationalities […] I have seen them working together through different languages through translation, by almost creating languages of their own on occasion, thinking through this production and trying to turn the findings of research over a number of years, into what to me, looks like a very beautiful production. For me this all about translating cultures in a variety of ways.”
Glasgow 2017 UNESCO Chair Lecture
The orchestra was invited and joined NOYAM African Dance Institute young people in Glasgow and Perth to perform at the Inaugural lecture by Prof. Alison Phipps newly appointed by UNESCO to Chair the work in creating safe environments for refugees to settle and rebuild their lives without losing their connection to their languages and cultural art forms. The invitation included participating in the SOLAS Festival in Perthshire Scotland.
Solas Festival
Solas Festival 2017 came alive with the sound, colour and energy of Ha Orchestra’s performances and family oriented music workshops.
The orchestra was invited and joined NOYAM African Dance Institute young people in Glasgow and Perth to perform at the Inaugural lecture by Prof. Alison Phipps newly appointed by UNESCO to Chair the work in creating safe environments for refugees to settle and rebuild their lives without losing their connection to their languages and cultural art forms. The invitation included participating in the SOLAS Festival in Perthshire Scotland.
Scotland 2019 – 5th Anniversary Celebration
Ha Orchestra Celebrated its 5th Anniversary with a commission from the European Conference on African Studies ECAS, and further support from the UNESCO Chair in Refugee Integration Through Languages and The Arts (UNESCO RILA) at the University of Glasgow School of Education. Dr Tordzro was invited by ECAS to present two Keynote concerts of his compositions and a series of workshops in Edinburgh. The concerts were popular and overflowing with enthusiastic audiences at the oldest concert hall and music museum the St Cecilia’s Hall.
Our key aim is to make available and share the wide-ranging cultural arts of African origin with as many people as possible, across the world, showcasing the rich musical traditions of Africa and the African diaspora. We are determined to work to create relevant contributions and alternative positive narratives around migration, cultural justice, cultural exchange, enrichment and understanding to promote peace and wellbeing across the world. The disruptions of COVID-19 and the recent global economic downturn present us with new multiple challenges globally. We support the roadmap to full recovery with our music.
Ha Orchestra – University of Glasgow
Dr Gameli Tordzro presents a Musical Keynote at the European Conference on African Studies {ECAS}. At the St Cecilia’s Hall and Museum the orchestra presents a number of tunes starting from Akaya Bells and Azorli Bewu which talks of travelling of journeying, being aware of what surrounds us as we journey through life’s creating and co-creating multiple memories while we delve into the ancestral memories we carry ourselves in our bodies and express through musical encounters.
“Most of us have migrated from different parts of the world to Europe We’ve carried with us our musical cultures, our musical experiences, our musical instruments, that normally would not meet on the continent of Africa in the manner in which they meet now…and so we think that migration is good for those reasons”
“…Journeying slowly journeying mindfully”
We thank ECAS for Commissioning us we thank Emirates Airlines for the financial support towards our commission.
Dr Gameli Tordzro
“You’ve all made a very good decision because this is what everyone has been praise singing about!”
Dr Kate Wright 2019
Gameli Tordzro Founder, Composer and Director
Since May 2022, Dr Gameli Tordzro has been working with newly recruited Ha Orchestra musicians on the MIDEQ research production Dami, Mini Kuraaa Ji Dami? in Dodowa in Ghana. The production treats the difficult issues around access to justice for who disadvantaged communities of migrants in global south migration corridor.
Alfred Tamakloe. Projects Director
Alfred Tamakloe is the director of projects. He is currently in discussion with Dr Tordzro developing a new project on the intersections of indigenous traditional musics. Tamakloe is also an Arts Journalist writing for Music of Africa.
10th Anniversary
2024 is our 10th anniversary Celebration. at Ha Orchestra, we are ready to respond to invitation as we develop new programmes in Scotland, Denmark, France, Belgium and Ghana where the orchestra’s musicians are based.
Covid-19 posed serious challenges from which we are still struggling to recover. At the same time it presents us with new collaborative opportunities we would not have thought about.
We have been part of the Migration for Equality and Development Hub (MIDEQ)‘s research. Ha Orchestra was part of the arts intervention production of ‘Dami’ in Dodowa. New Ha Orchestra members were recruited to engage in creating music for the Hubs research translation of findings on ‘Access to Justice’ for migrants into performance with the Noyam African Dance Institute and newly recruited young Ghanaian musicians.
Aim
Our main objective is to create and share unique authentic musical experience for as many people as possible.
Our Mission
We are on a mission to create alternative new narratives of Africa through the value of music, music making and musical experiences in the lives of people across the world.
The Team
The Orchestra is made up of Musicians from and living in several countries including Belgium, Burkina Faso, Denmark, England, France, Germany, Ghana, Italy, Kenya, Scotland, Sweden Switzerland, and Uganda.
