Tuesday 19 July 2011

300 children from 6 schools perform together in a youth music celebration

On Tuesday 28th and Wednesday 29th June over 300 children from six schools in the West Bridgford and Wilford area joined forces to sing in two concerts at the Nottingham Emmanuel School.

For the past two months singing animateurs from Music for Everyone have been leading two types of workshops, one especially designed for boys and one especially designed for girls, in six primary schools in the West Bridgford and Wilford area for children in school years 3 - 6.

On the 28th and 29th of June the Voices 2011 project culminated in two wonderful concerts where over 300 children from all of the schools came together at the Emmanuel School, West Bridgford to perform songs from well known musicals Annie and Oliver to their friends and families.

In school workshops were led by Helen Hayes, Jane McDouall and Elizabeth Lee who all have a wealth of experience encouraging young people to sing in a variety of contexts, including our ever popular Vocals courses. Helen Hayes said “Music for Everyone is passionate about inspiring a life-long love of singing from the youngest age. The project was funded to get more young people singing, we split the boys from the girls because often boys are reluctant to sing and are embarrassed about it. We wanted the boys and girls to own the fact that they have fantastic voices and enjoy singing. We feel the project has been a great success and really hope that the young people involved will keep up with their music making.”

Nottingham Boys’ Voices and Nottingham Girls’ Voices, Music for Everyone’s very own youth choirs for ages 8 - 14, also performed pieces in the concert.

The Lord Mayor of Nottingham Councillor Michael Wildgust, the Lady Mayoress and Councillor John Cottee County Council Cabinet Member for Culture and Community in Nottinghamshire were all in attendance at the concerts and enjoyed the children’s performances enormously. Councillor John Cottee said “a very enjoyable concert and great to see all the young girls enjoying their singing.” 

Angela Kay, Artistic Director of Music for Everyone said “The children taking part made a wonderful sound; The concerts were a fantastic celebration of youth music-making.”

Wednesday 13 July 2011

Nottingham Youth Voices singers chosen for the Cultural Olympiad!

We are pleased to announce that Ruth Hindmarsh, Emily Hodkinson and Charlotte Vivian of Nottingham have won places in the new national choir which will perform at the 2012 London Olympics and Cultural Olympiad.

Only seven singers between the ages of 16 and 21 from Nottinghamshire have been selected for Youth Music’s Voices Ensemble.  The girls are thrilled to have been chosen out of thousands of auditionees.  Choir member Ruth said “I am absolutely delighted, when I found out I had got into the choir I couldn’t believe it.”

Ruth, Emily and Charlotte were among several young singers put forward by Nottingham Youth Voices. Following the first round of auditions in January at the Royal Concert Hall, all three were invited to a second audition in March where they had to perform two solo songs in front of a panel of judges.

When asked what helped her cope with the challenge of the audition and just how she came through it with flying colours, Charlotte said, "Taking part in Music for Everyone’s workshops and being a part of their groups has helped prepare me for something like this throughout my life. I sung in their Vocals events for practically my whole childhood, and joined their girls’ choir, Nottingham Girls' Voices, when I was 10. Now I’m in their top youth choir, Nottingham Youth Voices. I’ve gained massive confidence with my singing from Music for Everyone, and some great performance opportunities." 

Conductor of Nottingham Youth Voices, Joe Shaw, expressed his delight with their success. “We are very proud of our singers. This will be a great opportunity for them and we are looking forward to seeing them perform, not only for the country, but also as representatives of Nottingham Youth Voices.”

As members of the special Youth Music Voices Ensemble, Ruth, Emily and Charlotte will perform an extensive repertoire of songs and arrangements specially commissioned for the lead into the 2012 Olympics. 

Rehearsals start in July and all three singers are really looking forward to meeting the other choir members and creating a fabulous new sound. Ruth says “I am really excited, the Cultural Olympiad is going to be brilliant. We’ll be performing all over London in the run-up to the Olympics themselves.”

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