The Winkleigh Singers commission Alison Willis via Composers Edition commissioning service for their anniversary Christmas concert.Started in...
This free network, chaired by Making Music, brings together organisations with an interest in singing in the UK. Chief Executive Barbara Eifler reports from its recent meeting.
Its 32 members join in up to three Zoom meetings a year with relevant speakers, as well as providing an opportunity to raise any issues or look for collaborations on projects or campaigns. It is a network of networks, but quite often discussions bring up interesting topics for individual singing groups and their leaders or organisers to consider. Below is a summary of subjects of wider interest which were on their agenda this month.
Peterborough Sings report into equal voice choirs
The focus of this research was on lower/male voice choirs which have been folding at an alarming rate. But their issues are perhaps ones faced by many choirs.
Some statistics: 81% of their singers are over the age of 65, only 2% below the age of 34. 2% of singers in male voice choirs are non-white British, 26% of the population are (though there are geographical variations of course). More demographic data in the full report (see below).
Groups have an ‘ambition problem’ – not developing singers musically, or their repertoire. The vast majority of their leaders have no musical qualification, and therefore don’t necessarily know how to tackle this.
These choirs often also have an attitude problem, finding it difficult or not understanding the need for change and/or in the attitudes their members might express casually, e.g. misogynistic, homophobic language, which can put off new joiners of a different generation.
Peterborough Sings is planning to address this crisis. There seems to be a need to promote engagement with new/different repertoire, support leaders to get relevant training, and develop a ‘project-based recruitment’ tool, i.e. choirs setting up a six to eight week project, e.g. around creating a fundraising event for Prostate Cancer UK. A percentage of the men who engage with such a project will generally join the choir at the end. But in order for that to be successful, those new singers have to join into an atmosphere which is welcoming and inclusive, so they don’t leave again after a short time. There is therefore also work to be done in helping choirs remove potential barriers not just to initial access, but to welcoming and retaining new people as well.
Read the full report and presentation from the Male Voice Choir conference in February
Royal Schools of Church Music Sing for the King project
RSCM have commissioned a piece of music from Joanna Forbes L’Estrange for choirs to sing for the King’s coronation and register their performance on the map. Any choir can take part.
See more details on the RSCM website
Daniel Goren from Composers Edition/new repertoire for choirs
Dan introduced their model which allows the creators, as members, to keep the copyright in their works. As a small and friendly company, they also offer support to customers, e.g. brokering contacts with one of their composers, suggesting works (all by living composers) from their catalogue (though of course many music publishers do that!) and encouraging choirs of all budgets to get involved with one of their composers. Composers Edition is also a Making Music corporate member and offers members a 10% discount on all purchases, hire and commissioning.
Find out more about corporate member Composers Edition, and how to claim a discount via the resource page
The discussion also referenced other places to find inspiring repertoire, e.g. international choral repertoire database (Making Music members have free full access), affordable and flexible new music via Contemporary Music for All and 3 Choirs Festival - hire out their library of music at reasonable cost.
Natural Voice Network spoke about their commissioning project in partnership with Black Lives in Music, which has produced eight songs for community choirs by eight black composers, crowdfunded by choirs themselves.
Find out more on the BLM Commissioning project website and purchase the works through the Choir Community’s online library
World Symposium on Choral Singing 2029?
On behalf of the Singing Network UK, Leslie East (former Chair of the Association of British Choral Directors) investigated the possibility of bringing the World Symposium to the UK in 2029. This is a six-day event on a massive scale, generally with a budget well above £1 million which requires at least 50% funding and a lot of capacity in terms of organising. The meeting concluded that this was not really a practical or realistic option for the UK.
However, there seemed to be a general appetite for a World Symposium event. At a future meeting, Singing Network UK will hear from and explore other options or models there may be which the UK could engage with.
Barbara Eifler
Chief Executive of Making Music
