• by Larissa Faw , March 26, 2021

Create Not Hate, the organization set up by Quiet Storm Trevor Robinson OBE to get underrepresented young people into the creative industries, is teaming with The Elements Music to expose students to the world of music for media.

The Elements Music, which creates music and sound for brands, hosted workshops under the Create Not Hate framework by inviting young participants to participate in an actual campaign. 

This session’s live brief involved working on a piece of music for the British Arrow Awards, which took place on March 25. The music accompanies a film for the award ceremony for the “Made in Lockdown” category. Create Not Hate cohorts were invited to record themselves expressing how they’ve felt about lockdown and the challenges and experiences they’ve faced.

The winning entry was a poem written and performed by 16-year-old Jaiden Chang. Chang’s work was then made into a piece of music by The Elements, with all participants following the process of the music being produced.

The Arrows also gave two participants paid work as runners at the award ceremony. Chang, with the winning entry, landed paid work experience, as well as on-going mentorship from the organization.

Although conducting these sessions during national lockdowns are “more challenging,” Robinson recognizes music workshops online do still work with “good engagement” levels. “It’s our preference to do workshops in person. This is more suitable for engagement and better, as we can give young people practical, real-life experiences of the industry more authentically.”

In addition to the sessions that took place online  March 16 and March 23, Create Not Hate plans to run more music workshops as part of a full program this year. It also has productions in the pipeline, though it is still trying to secure funding.

“Last year, we ran our entire program in July and August in person but under strict COVID regulations with all safety measures in place, ensuring everyone’s safety at all times,” adds Summer Rozenbroek, project manager, Create Not Hate. “We plan to do the same this year, including a music component to the program that can hopefully be in person, keeping everyone’s safety as our priority.”