Performer Interview: Pear
Formed through a friendship made at Access Creative College Norwich, Pear is an acoustic duo whose musical experiences show the success stories created by supporting performance arts education.
Pear performs at MFY Proms 2022
Pear was formed three years ago by singer/instrumentalists Erin and Toby, though due to Toby’s re-location to Australia Erin is joined by DT for tonight’s concert and interview.
Young musicians Erin, DT and Toby had a specialist performance arts training when they attended Access Creative College in Norwich. Access Creative College boasts alumni including Jess Glynn and Ed Sheeran and offers courses in music, computing, events, games and media. The college was founded over 25 years ago with a mission statement “to develop the next generation of creatives through innovative, practical, employment-led training.” This training led to Pear performing at Latitude Festival in 2021 (and returned in 2022), where they supported the charity Tonic Music for Mental Health whose mission statement is “delivering good mental health and recovery through music”, a powerful message for young musicians to be supporting – especially after the plethora of ways we have seen music and the arts support young people’s mental health through the coronavirus pandemic.
Based in Norwich, this isn’t Pears first involvement with Music for Youth, they performed on Saturday 9th July in Town Hall, Birmingham as part of the Music for Youth National Festival in July 2022. The girls have been playing together since year 7 “we became friends by bonding over what music we listened to” and they have previously performed at events such as Young Norfolk Arts festival as a duo called Lunar Daze.
Enthusiastic performers, Erin commented on how much she enjoys performing “I just like how it makes me feel, it makes me feel really happy to do it, I get a lot of joy from it.” Erin commented on how she gets a lot of song-writing inspiration from life experiences and her bio states “Erin Elizaa combines her love of literature and poetry with her previous experiences in relationships to make an intriguing perspective on life at the beginning of adulthood.” Erin's music, including her debut single 'Indigo Sky' which was released on the 18th of March 2022 is a wonderful example of the creative outlook young people can find in music.
Both performers started music at a young age and DT comments on how watching older musicians inspired her “I remember being 10 and seeing someone play the guitar at my school talent show and thinking wow I want to be them”. A lovely sentiment to have, inspiring the younger generation with their performance tonight, on the first evening of the MFY proms in the Royal Albert Hall.
About the author
Erin Black
Erin began her musical studies at a young age, and is now studying classical piano at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama where she is supported by a generous Guildhall School Scholarship. Outside of musical activity, Erin is a enthusiastic academic. Erin’s research focuses on the relationship between music and law in Renaissance Florence. A keen writer, Erin is undertaking a diploma in Music Journalism at the London School of Journalism.