News & Events
Members of Living Song’s Youth Advisory Board took part in the Fair Energy Futures Symposium last month in Queen Elizabeth Park, Newham. The local Young Artists came together to write a new song focused on their concerns, hopes and actions towards fairer energy for all. Harine, Lucian and Brendon then performed their song ‘live’ at the afternoon Community Fair for delegates. They were also invited to take part in a radio podcast Q & A as part of the event, sharing their stories about discussions and song writing collaborations around relevant topics in their lives. The symposium also welcomed …
We are excited that Young Voices have chosen to add our song MESSAGE to their 2023 programme.
We are proud that our Associate Artist Byron Gold is inspiring students across Lambeth Schools with his new song ‘Greatness’ , arranged especially for the Sing Lambeth Project, led by Lambeth Music Service in partnership with Pegasus Opera, Southbank Centre and Living Song. Byron has been running singing workshops teaching this song following a teacher training to introduce this and other pieces to secondary schools across Lambeth. As always we are delighted to be working with one of our developing young artists, Harine, who is co-leading workshops and attending all the Sing Lambeth teacher trainings. We are excited for the next phase where teachers will work with Associate …
www.mfy.org.uk The Regional Events are back in person this year and it’s wonderful to see and hear so many young people expressing themselves through their music. Choirs, jazz bands, brass bands, rock and pop band and all manor of choirs presenting diverse and musical programmes, ‘live’ and in person. Wonderful!
Living Song is glad to continue contributing creative singing workshops for Newham’s Holiday Activity and Food programme across the borough. This enables children aged 5 – 18 who would normally benefit from free school meals to receive a good meal in the day while enjoying fun activities. Our local Associate Artists are engaging up to 60 children at a time in warm ups, creative play and singing known and loved songs. We know that singing led skilfully has the power to heal trauma, build confidence and connection and create a space have fun! Next stop Royal Docks Learning and Activity Centre.
As we approach the end of 2021, our main message is one of gratitude to all the people we work with and for our supporters and friends. In this, the end of our 10th Anniversary year, we have received so many kind and enthusiastic messages from artists, young people and partners about how much Living Song means to them. While we can’t deny the challenges of the pandemic, we have many achievements to celebrate and future plans to look forward to. As we say goodbye to Stratford Circus, our long standing partner, their encouragement to reach out to other strong …
We are proud to have kept our offer up throughout the pandemic, offering on-line sessions via Zoom and one-to-one mentoring. Some of this came through our Arts Council funded programme Artist Approach and some directly from our leadership team to individual young people in distress. It was a challenge for all our artists and young people to remain positive and hopeful and, like so many other artists, musicians, singing leaders and arts practitioners we are very delighted to be back in a space with people however cautious we still need to be, making music, re-connecting, visioning and generally coming …
And that’s a wrap! We had a brilliant week running our London Choral Music Teacher Education (CME) 10th Anniversary Intensive from Thursday 22nd to Sunday 25th July. We are so proud of all those who took part in the course. CME is a great opportunity for choir conductors, music teachers, singing leaders and those aspiring to develop their leadership in this field to get together and learn from each other under the leadership of a wonderful faculty of consultants. Special thank you to Mandy Miller, Brandon Williams, Steve Lodder, David Brunner, Naveen Arles, Landing Mané, John Nutekpor, Artist Teachers, …
The Living Song team had a wonderful week at UCPS in June. Two young artists were resident working with reception, year 1, year 5 and year 6 learners. Harine (18) and Richie (21) gained experience working alongside teachers based at the school, focusing on singing while drawing on other art forms to engage, inspire and explore with the children. The theme of our work was ‘Hajanga’. The meaning of the word ‘Hajanga’ as described by Jacob Collier, the composer of the song, describes the force of your life. He says, “… everything goes in cycles, everything goes up and down and round and …
NewYVC, the Stratford Circus resident youth choir had the most wonderful weekend residency at Snape Maltings, singing with and getting to know Group A, the resident Brittenpears Arts youth vocal performance group. Supported by Jane Wheeler of Living Song and Naveen Arles, Musical Director of NewYVC, the young people shared warm-ups and repertoire and created their own group pieces under the facilitation of the wonderful music animateur, Aga Serugo Lugo. Both groups explored their own environments in relation to a walk around Snape Maltings, crafted text and inspired melodies, supported by percussionist Rosie Bergonzi and harpist Imogen Ridge. The whole group performed outdoors on the last day of their …
