Fox & Rocha were commissioned by Curiosity Productions Ltd with funding from the John Feeney Charitable Trust to create a new performance for young audiences - The Water Song Cycle, to premiere on 22nd March 2024, which was World Water Day.

This was a brand new set of songs and musical umbrellas themed around water for young audiences and their families. The project was also supported by the Midlands Arts Centre who hosted the premiere of the new work and provided rehearsal space and technical support. Both shows on 22nd March were sold out to a total of 120 adults and 105 babies and young children across the two shows.

Fox & Rocha (Sam Frankie Fox and Ricardo Santos Rocha) are the artists behind BAM: Babies’ Adventures in Music. They worked with stay and play groups in Hodge Hill and Balsall Heath to inspire this special new set of songs with beautiful sensory props and watery sounds. The ‘Umbrellaphones’ (musical umbrella sculptures) were created by Chanphiphat Janthra in partnership with Fox & Rocha.

The songs and musical umbrellas were created alongside the families, using the sounds of water, their languages and cultures as inspiration. The creative team enjoyed testing ideas with the community groups, sharing ‘umbrellaphone’ prototypes and then finally inviting groups to the premiere live performance. Many of the community participants had never been to MAC before, and some expressed that the ticket price would have prevented them from coming if they had not been invited through the project.

The Water Song Cycle performance was a truly multi-sensory experience, and took the work that Fox and Rocha do with BAM to a totally new level. The musical repertoire was a combination of original music and collected folk songs. They brought theatricality, play and experimentation to this music concert, and presented a high quality performance for young audiences. The creation of the ‘Umbrellaphones’ was a great collaboration between Fox & Rocha and Chanphiphat Janthra. They are both aesthetically beautiful and sonically interesting.