News & Events
After two fantastic taster sessions at The Lab E20 in Stratford, the first cohort of young music mentees (YMMs) will begin their regular workshops in February. Working with four established artists (Michael Goodey, Pam Hulme, Chanté Osagiede, and Shammi Pithia), plus two emerging artists (YAs Gabriele Chudi and Mohan Dhar), the YMMs will work on AA2 until June, having opportunities to deepen their musicianship andstrengthen their performance skills, as well as developing dynamic community workshop leading and event production skills. Along the way, our YMMs will be coached to lead community workshops and produce youth-led performances in different parts of London, featuring new music which they …
On 7th November 2023 Living Song artists, associates, and friends came together at The Lab E20 in Stratford for a fantastically musical event celebrating all things Living Song! With music, food, drinks and speeches, it was the perfect opportunity to celebrate the Living Song community, but also to say a huge THANK YOU to Jane Wheeler, (Founder and outgoing Executive Director of Living Song), and to formally welcome our new Executive Director, Pam Hulme. Brilliantly compered by Joe Adelakun and Nathan Devonte, who also brought together Living Song Alumni singers to perform classics such as ‘O kame, kameme’ and …
We are thrilled to have been successful in our grant application to Arts Council England to deliver Artist Approach 2. This Project builds on our previous work one-line during COVID lockdown and our Singing for Mental Health and Well Being with Newham Council. Artist Approach 2 will bring together 20 young music mentees (YMMs) aged 16–25 with 4 professional and 2 emerging artists. The YMMs from diverse backgrounds, will deepen their musicianship, strengthen their performance and event production skills and develop dynamic community workshop leading skills. If you are 16 – 25 with a passion for singing, making music and working towards a professional career, don’t …
We are proud of our association with the wonderful, Inspiring Voices in this Sing Up Foundation Podcast series. Inspiring Voices is a great listen for teachers, school leaders, teaching students, community workers, music leaders, singing leaders, choir leaders, charity and mental health workers. You can find the podcast on all of your favourite podcast platforms including – Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts and Amazon Music. Videos are also available on our YouTube Channel.
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 …
