We are very excited over at Urban. One of our guests, Sekou, is part of a community choir that is performing with Scottish Opera over the next two weeks. Here is the description of the event on the Scottish Opera’s website.

This large-scale, innovative production sweeps audiences along with the action and features an 80-strong community chorus in partnership with Maryhill Integration Network, an organisation bringing asylum seekers, refugees, and settled inhabitants of Glasgow together through art. While timeless, this production reflects the specific challenges of capitalism and globalisation in today’s world, celebrating all of life’s beautiful, messy stories along the way.

You can read more here: https://www.scottishopera.org.uk/shows/candide/.

It is our desire for all our International guests to become integrated into Glasgow. We love to see their talents, knowledge and experiences recognised, as they become our new Glaswegians.

Sekou is a member of our Camera Club and had some guitar lessons with our music tutor, Graham, earlier this year. He said, “I had no experience in singing or acting before joining the community choir. I feel so fortunate and even blessed to have been offered such an enriching golden opportunity. The help from the Scottish Opera was amazing and supportive. It’s a lifetime experience and I have enjoyed every second. I have made new friends, my confidence improved. I hope these types of projects bring more communities together and open doors to more integration. I highly recommend it to people who would love to learn about opera singing.”

The Glasgow slogan created for the Commonwealth Games in 2014 is People Make Glasgow. We thank Scottish Opera and the Maryhill Integration Network for helping Sekou, and others, become these people.