Dreaming of music was inspired by Goole’s West Park Bandstand. In 2020 performance venues were closed across the country and West Park was no exception. The bandstand, a place built for performance and entertaining stands empty, lifeless and without music. Taking this as inspiration Julian Westerman chose to create a piece of music inspired by this structure.
“When I heard about IOU Theatre and Junction’s My Three Words project, the West Park Bandstand was the obvious choice for me. I love music making and nothing beats performing outdoors on a beautifully sunny day. I chose the bandstand because it was dedicated to my uncle and piano teacher, Frank Ella, when it was renovated and reopened in 2014. In 2020 live performance stopped, and I took this abandonment as inspiration for my piece. I’ve used a fairly simple repeating phrase through the piece with the aim of producing a haunting theme with fuller chords later bringing feelings of hope for the future – people returning, and live music was again coming from this much loved site.”
Julian recorded the piece at home on his vintage upright piano.
Julian Westerman is a musician living in East Yorkshire. He grew up in the area and as a child, attended piano lessons in Goole every Saturday morning at the Hargreaves Music and Furniture shop on Boothferry Road, with his uncle, Frank Ella.
He has worked as a music educator; he was chairman and trustee of Huntingdonshire Music School in Cambridgeshire for around 8 years until returning to Yorkshire 3 years ago. Over the last 3 years Julian has developed his solo performance and original composition and has performed with a number of local groups including Howden Pantomime and Theatre group, and the Allsortz Big Band based in Bubwith. Julian also provides individual piano tuition.