The Ballads of Child Migration, a CD of music commissioned to coincide with the V&A Museum of Childhood exhibition entitled ‘On Their Own: Britain’s Child Migrants‘, curated by Professor Gordon Lynch from the Department of Religious Studies, is to premiere at a public performance at the Royal Concert Hall in Glasgow on Tuesday 19 January as part of the Celtic Connections folk festival.
The Ballads of Child Migration is a collection of folk songs produced by John Leonard using material from Gordon’s forthcoming book to express different aspects of former child migrants’ experiences and was used by the Museum of Childhood to enhance aspects of their exhibition. The project involved leading folk musicians, including John McCusker, Boo Hewerdine, and Jez Lowe, with contributions from Chris While and Julie Matthews and Belinda O’Hooley and Heidi Tidow.
The Royal Concert Hall is one of the largest music venues in Scotland, with a 1,400 seat capacity. In addition to the musicians originally appearing on the album, the performance will also involve Barbara Dixon and Eddi Reader.
Further details of the event are available at: www.celticconnections.com/events
BBC Radio Scotland also reviewed the album and interviewed John Leonard and some of the performers on The Janice Forsyth Show on Thursday 14 January 2016. The programme can be heard on the BBC’s iPlayer here: www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06tqfqf#play (from 36.40).