- Producer: Rhyannon Parry
Sound Stories is a new regional creative programme connecting the Liverpool City Region through music, local stories and experiences.
The collaborative project is bringing together cultural organisations, artists, schools and community groups across all six boroughs of the Liverpool City Region, exploring what happens when people, ideas and resources are connected across places.
Supported through the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority’s Percent for Culture programme and proudly coordinated by ourselves, Sound Stories brings together cultural partners Arts in Libraries, Future Yard, Liverpool Philharmonic, Norton Priory, Rule of Threes, Shakespeare North Playhouse, alongside artists and community organisations across Halton, Knowsley, Liverpool, Sefton, St Helens and the Wirral.
Sound Stories will use music, creativity and storytelling to strengthen community connections, celebrate local identity and create opportunities for residents to connect across the region.
Stories rooted in place
Each Sound Stories project starts locally. Communities across each borough are exploring what makes their places distinctive, using music and storytelling to connect people, places and generations.
Heart of Glass will proudly be operating across both St Helens and Knowsley, working on a cross-generational songwriting and performance project with community groups and young people exploring heritage and social issues through music. And in St Helens specifically, we will also be working with Come Together Hub and local communities on a programme writing and performing songs from lived experience, with the support of St Helens Arts in Libraries.
Other projects are taking place across the region:
Halton: Norton Priory is bringing local heritage and folklore to life with live music performances and storytelling, working in partnership with Halton libraries, connecting generations, schools and communities across the borough.
Knowsley: Shakespeare North Playhouse will be working with community groups in Kirkby in partnership with Quarantine to create opportunities for conversations and for hearing stories about Kirkby and the people who live there.
Liverpool: Liverpool Philharmonic will co-design interactive relaxed concerts for intergenerational audiences at Toxteth Library. Workshops will bring residents, partners and artists together to share stories, themes and content that reflect community experiences.
Sefton: Rule of Threes is working with artist and performer Jennifer Reid to produce 'Folklore for a New Town'. The project will bring together groups of young and older people to explore local, working-class stories and histories, transforming them into song.
Wirral: Future Yard will work with writer, performer and director Ashleigh Nugent on a project connecting young people in Birkenhead through music. Young people will lead the creative process, shaping the stories, music and performance and reflecting their experiences and vision for the future of the place they call home.
Looking ahead
Sound Stories will culminate in a celebration and performance in spring 2027, bringing together participants, partners and audiences from across all six boroughs to share music, stories, visual art, folklore and community creativity developed through the programme.
Future Yard was established in 2020 with the aim of creating a transformational live music venue for the people of Birkenhead, Wirral and Merseyside. They're passionate about the power of music and the positive impact a high-quality community music venue can have on people’s lives.
Their 280-capacity music venue is situated at the heart of Birkenhead, with artist rehearsal rooms in the basement and mixed-use spaces to host training programmes and private events.
Rule of Threes make small, beautiful projects, produced with time and care, that embed contemporary art practices in everyday life. They aim to initiate new art programmes which create agency and change for people and their local neighbourhoods, bringing together artists, producers and local people.
Norton Priory Museum & Gardens, situated on the edge of Runcorn, is one of Cheshire's hidden gems. Once home to a medieval church, it has become the most excavated monastic site in Europe.
Founded in 1134, the priory now hosts a museum displaying thousands of objects discovered at the site and is surrounded by woodland walks, secret summer houses, sculptures, a stream glade and a tranquil 2.5 acre Georgian Walled Garden.
