Lullabies Project
VILK COLLECTIVE
27 June | Time: 17:00 | Venue: The Montgomery
ABOUT THE EVENT
This live music performance explores lullabies from different cultures across Sheffield. It will emerge from a collaboration with local communities, in a workshop led by the Vilk Collective.
“I’ve been singing Iranian songs as lullabies to my children, and it's the one moment when I feel this invisible thread connecting me back to my motherland and passing that heritage on to them. It's also at that moment that my kids might ask me about their grandparents or the landscapes of a country they have never been able to visit. After speaking to others of mixed heritage who face similar challenges of keeping our mother tongues and cultures alive, I realised I could explore this subject through music, which has no borders, can touch us all and unites us rather than divides us.’’ Roxana Vilk / Vilk Collective
Developed in association with Trinity Community Arts Centre Bristol.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Vilk Collective at its core, is creative duo Roxana Vilk and Peter Vilk, both musicians, and award winning filmmakers, who met in Bosnia just after the war. Conflict was a backdrop to both their childhoods, Roxana grew up in Iran and her family fled as the Iran/Iraq war started. Pete was born in London but his parents grew up in the old Czechoslovakia and had fled to London when the Russian tanks invaded in 1968.
They were recently artists in residence at Trinity Community Arts Centre Bristol and developed a community music project called ‘Lullabies’ where they collected songs and heritage stories from across communities, celebrating over 96 languages that are spoken in the city. Their Lullabies project was awarded a Here and There community music award, featured on BBC Saturday Live and on the BBC News. this led to them developing a show called ‘Circle/دایره’, a new immersive performance of live music in Persian and English work grown out of an artistic collaboration between award winning light installation artists Squidsoup and award winning musicians Vilk Collective. With sold out shows at Trinity, The Egg theatre, Bristol Beacon, Arnolfini and St Mary’s Fratton, Freedom Festival Hull and the Immersive 360 Dome Plymouth. In each city in the UK they collaborated with communities to create a unique sound scape of songs and stories, exploring and celebrating diverse heritages. The tour was funded by Arts Council England. They are looking for opportunities to tour this work again.
They both grew up listening to eclectic music from and Persian Folk and Funk to Czech Jazz and Punk. At the heart of their artistic approach is collaboration with communities and other creatives - for 15 years they recorded & performed with top musicians like Yann Seznec on Keys (Mathew Herbert), Allan Ferguson on Bass (Freaky Family), Dougie Hudson on Percussion (Salsa Celtica).
They also run community music workshops in a host of different settings, currently they are commissioned to by Gloucester City Council to run workshops across primary schools, choirs and refugee groups in Gloucester, celebrating diverse communities, to create songs and soundscapes for Refugee Week Celebrations 2025 at the Guildhall. They were commissioned by Guildhall to create a film called ‘Roots’ celebrating diverse heritages, with children from Tredworth Infant and Nursery school.
BBC TV and BBC Persian have filmed Vilk Collective for 3 separate music programmes & recorded live sessions at The Premise Studios, London and they were selected for the UK Jazz Expo. Recently they were selected to perform for the ‘Housewarming’ opening of the new Bristol Beacon, as well as performing twice at St George’s Bristol as part of their Listening Room programme. Both Roxana and Pete are core members of the Dovetail Orchestra in Bristol which is a mix of refugee and local musicians. As well as performing with the Orchestra they run outreach workshops in community centres.
They released their single “Just Disappeared” featuring renowned Cellist Su-a Lee (Scottish Chamber Orchestra). The music video won 2nd Grand Prix du Jury at AVIFF Cannes Festival and Best Artist Award at New Renaissance Film Festival London and was featured on BBC Radio 6. They are currently recording, mixing & collaborating with Bristol musicians for a series of singles and an album release in 2025
Vilk Collective Testimonials and quotes:
“a virtuoso trip, utterly beautiful” - BBC Introducing
Their last release ‘Trees Have Roots 2.0’ was featured by Tom Robinson on BBC Radio 6
“Vilk Collective are an utterly unique proposition, there are elements of jazz, dub, funk, hip hop, Iran and Cuba that combine so well it’s a testament to the skill of the band and the music itself. Most importantly though, Vilk Collective have a groove that anyone can lock into.” - Chris Knight Director of Kelburn Garden Party Festival.
“Simply sublime! Your set warmed my heart and raised my spirits even higher than they normally are. I just love the depth of your lyrics and the beauty of the pulses and chords you choose to convey your meaningful messages. I really enjoyed the relaxed way that you engaged the audience’s participation. I automatically found myself joining in at those parts - it works wonderfully.” Eugene Skeef, co- curator of ‘Act 4 Music Jazz’ Festival with Anthony Tidd from The Roots.