News & Events
What a brilliant day at West Road Concert Hall. Year 5 and 6 from UCPS excelled in their singing for this event. Expressive, moving, poignant, dynamic, musical and thoroughly engaging for the whole hour long concert. Living Song worked in partnership with the Head Teacher to ensure the highest standard of band accompaniment and sound for the children to experience. Our young Artist Harine Pushpanathan helped to co-conduct where needed and conducted two pieces herself, one with the choir and one comedy song with all 180 of the children. Harine has been developing with Living Song for over five …
We are delighted and proud to continue our partnership with Lambeth Music Service, The Primary Singing Events at Southbank Centre in March were a fantastic success. Teachers and parents were thrilled about the quality of singing achieved, the choice of repertoire and the diversity of the team leading. Thanks to the vision of Bryan Welton, the Director of LMS, Living Song was invited to collaborate for repertoire selection and teacher trainings. The Director of Living Song, Jane Wheeler and two Young Artists, as well as Guest Artist Randolph Matthews were involved in the teacher trainings, sharing skills, teaching the songs and offering bespoke feedback as requested by participants. …
Following on from the two day training with Daren from Musicians Without Borders we ran 4 workshops across Newham Libraries and Community Groups. Chante Faucher led an all comers workshop at Stratford Library, assisted by 2 young artists. Brendon led a breathing and stretching warm up to help participants to come into the space and prepare their bodies for some gentle singing. Charlie supported the lead artist, Chante by accompanying some of the activity on guitar. The feedback was highly positive and participants were asking if this could be a regular workshop! We will have to see where the funding for this might come from! Mohan Dhar led a workshop …
CME, London 2023 is a cornerstone of professional development in Living Song’s calendar. This year once again, the faculty took us on a journey of personal and professional development like no other. David Brunner our guest conductor and composer from the USA worked along side Mandy Miller to immerse us in best practice through a broad range of repertoire, score study, rehearsal preparation, voice and conducting practicums. We introduced new composers, including Brandon Williams and Lea Morris and immersed ourselves in some choral classics from the likes of Eric Whitacre J.S. Bach and of course, David Brunner himself! Our delegation was made up of highly experienced practitioners, …
This was once again a fantastic evening with SES, celebrating 10 years since the choir began at Stratford East. Our associate artist, Byron Gold programmed a compelling, moving and dynamic evening of music, which had the audience on their feet by half way through. The energy, harmonies and solo’s of the singers could not help to lift spirits far and wide and we are thrilled that our association with the choir meant that our Young Artist, Richie Ekila played a major part in the concert, singing tenor and singing lead for two songs. Congratulations to Byron, SES and Richie. …
We are over the moon to hear so many hundreds and thousands of children across the UK singing our song MESSAGE. The 02 Arena has been buzzing with the sound of a wonderful range of songs for the children to sing, including a medley of traditional folk songs, a Don’t Worry Mashup, Moving On Up and Proud, sung with Heather Small herself. And right there in the middle of the Programme was MESSAGE collaboratively written during a Living Song project funded by PRSF. The writers; Errollyn Wallen, Shammi Pithia, Amina Gichinga, Naomi Scarlett, Mohan Dhar, Stefan Vitalis and Jane Wheeler were all invited to the VIP evening at the 02 Arena and were thrilled to …
We are very excited to learn that Lambeth Music has doubled the number of secondary schools that will take part in Lambeth Sings this academic year. This is not only due to the success of our end of year event at Southbank Centre last summer, but also as a result of the fantastic Come and Sing Day in November, created by Southbank Centre and Lambeth Music Service. Five Lambeth secondary schools attended the day, which brought together a number of wonderful artists, including Aga Serugo-Lugo, Osnat Schmool, Randolph Matthews and Nathan Davonte. The young people from across Lambeth Schools …
We have a new offer as part of our Singing for Mental Health and Well Being programme. Find My Voice is aimed at primary schools, in particular Key Stage 2 children who are still struggling with the impact of Covid 19 and the energy crisis and finding it challenging to return to regular school activities. For a subsidised rate, we can offer up to six workshops after school, drawing on our training with Musicians Without Borders and our artistic team’s broader experience. Through singing and musical activity, children will be gently encouraged to participate in fun, safe singing games to rebuild their confidence and engage them …
On 24th and 25th November 2022 lead trainer Darren Abrahams from Musicians Without Borders. (MwB) took four professional and ten young artists on a practical journey of discovery based on principles and practices of MwB. Trainees learned about the impact of trauma on our bodies and minds and explored how music making, especially singing in community can help healing. Through skilled activities and approaches a safe space for workshop participants and therapy groups to express themselves can be created, and they can begin to experience integration back into their lives again. Participants received certification for their participation in this empowering two-day …
Living Song has been awarded a grant from Newham Council to lead this project. COVID-19 has affected every aspect of our residents’ lives, including many mental health and wellbeing challenges.The long-term impact of trauma, anxiety, grief and distress, as well as the current financial pressures faced by thousands of Newham residents due to the rising cost of living, are likely to increase mental health and wellbeing concerns. We will work with an experienced trainer from Musicians Without Borders. to provide two full days of training and development around Singing for Mental Health and Well Being for Artists and young people aged 16 …
