Here singer Mitra Djalili writes about the  cross-genre music project which brought musicians from across Croydon together.

Until about this time last year I did not know that Thornton Heath had such an amazing pool of creative and artistic talent. 

With the announcement of The Thornton Heath Light Festival in January of this year, which I was invited and delighted to perform in, I tapped into a culture of music and arts I had previously been oblivious to. 

Though not from lack of investigation and trying, I just hadn’t found the scene up until that point. From there I performed at other local events that served the community but the one I had been most excited about was Croydon Composers which has just had its final performance at Boxpark Croydon on December 2. 

It was an incredible success. Croydon Composers was funded by Croydon Council and orchestrated by Shri and Shirin Sriram who brought together artists from many genres of music to collaborate one with another as duos in order to create and produce an cross-genre piece of music to be performed at the Oval Tavern in Croydon (again, another hidden gem I found) and Boxpark.

 It was an incredible experience, collaborating with Grime artist Unorthodox Kingz. 

I found it challenging and fun creating something I wouldn’t  have had the opportunity to do as an individual artist. I also learned that there is an incredible amount of talent in Thornton Heath. Two of the other performers  Dédé and Stush,  are both from Thornton Heath and contrary to my own previous set of musical preferences, I also found that I do not mind a bit of rap jazz at all. 

In fact it rather worked a treat as the electric atmosphere on the night showed. 

It was also great to perform alongside the Young Croydon Composers from Croydon Music and Arts, Sangeetha of the UK and Music Relief who performed earlier in the evening. 

We all came together for the finale where the legendary south London drum and bass artist UK Apache led us all on his mid nineties hit ‘Get up’ which even got the Mayor of Croydon on her feet! Roll on Croydon Composers 2019. 

The tracks will be available to download soon – keep an eye on: www.croydoncomposers.co.uk

Koincydence aka Alex KO (pictured) who also appeared at the Light Festival, has released a festive song – Christmas Wish a single described as a loveable, positive pop song that belongs on your Christmas playlist! 

Back in August  Thornton Heath based KO, who starred in the West End hit musical Thriller Live, issued Read Into It, with a music video featuring some well known Thornton Heath locations including  the mural outside the Job Centre on Thornton Heath High Street, the railway footbridge and Grangewood Park. To listen to KO’s latest tunes: 

www.koincydence.com