'A Choir in Every Care Home' is an initiative to explore how music and singing can feature regularly in care homes across the country.
Last summer, many of you contributed to a survey to tell us about the activities of amateur choirs and other music groups in care homes. It was really interesting, and the data gathered is going to feature in our final report, which we’ll tell you about soon.
This blog post has been a long time coming as it was put on pause while I have been finishing my PhD. Thankfully that is all handed in now and I feel I can focus on my composition projects whole-heartedly again, which is a wonderful feeling!
In our first meeting The Lincoln Ukulele Band generously gave me a Ukulele not just for the project but as a gift to keep which I am most grateful for! Thank you!
Andy Jackson, the inspirational leader of Cobweb Orchestras, thought the best way for me to get an idea of how they work would be to join in one of their groups, and he organised a cello for me to play. But what Andy didn’t know until I met him in the Sage Gateshead café that day that I have never held a cello before in my life.
After the creation of the Yorkshire Music Library (under social enterprise Fresh Horizons) in 2012, the vast collection of over 300,000 musical scores, so crucial to the amateur and youth music sectors, went from strength to strength under its young music librarian, Sophie Anderson.
Latterly it had been hiring music to over 1,100 users throughout the UK, so there was widespread concern when Fresh Horizons ceased operating a few weeks ago, putting the future of the Yorkshire Music Library once more at risk.
The winners can be engaged by Making Music's 3000+ members - music clubs, amateur choirs and orchestras - at fixed fees and substantial subsidies, thanks to the generous funding by the Philip and Dorothy Green Music Trust. Artists gain valuable performing experience at the beginning of their careers and often forge lifelong relationships with groups all over the country, and voluntary music groups benefit from the substantial subsidy to book the best young soloists at an early stage in their professional careers.
Last week I met with the orchestra again! My mentor David Horne was able to come to this rehearsal, which was very useful. I now have the first 2 or 3 minutes of the piece pretty much completed the way I want them, and a plan for the rest.
The piece is developing into a tone poem based on a baby elephant growing up – she’s born, finds her feet, finds her voice, flees a forest fire, and finds her family again afterwards. I might be a little biased here as I’ve got two young daughters – as I said to the orchestra, you work with what you know…
Local authorities are implementing cuts of unprecendented scale for the financial years 2016/7 and music libraries continue to be targets. Find out how we're fighting back.
Could you be the UK’s best, undiscovered singing group? Whether you’re a gospel group with gusto, a band of beatbox bravados or a pitch perfect pop troupe, Gareth Malone wants to hear from you.
Imagine being 16 years old and conducting a choir of experienced singers in front of a full house. Last November, that daunting prospect faced Tasmin Sarkany, winner of the 2015 place in The Ripieno Choir’s Apprentice Conductor programme, as she prepared for her first public outing.
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