Orchestrations by Emma Jean Thackray

Premiered in Knowle West Bristol September 2021.
Then also performed at Brighton Festival 2022.

SMOOSH! brings a 70-piece wind and brass band and a troop of dancers performing rip-roaring pop karaoke tunes on the move to the streets of Knowle West, Bristol.

In Paraorchestra's biggest commission to date, a core of 20 musicians from Paraorchestra will be joined by up to 50 community wind and brass players and an army of professional and community adult and child dancers to perform a track list of songs by artists such as Fatboy Slim, Kate Bush, Basement Jaxx, and Adele.

An antidote to a year+ of lockdown restrictions and absence of live entertainment SMOOSH! invites residents and visitors out onto their doorsteps to dance and sing along in magnificent, cacophonous, communal karaoke – a ‘massaoke’!

SMOOSH! has been made possible with funding from The Linbury Trust, Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, and the Culture Recovery Fund.