Youth concert

Choral Project for Young People

Gloucestershire Music Service, Making Music and the Cheltenham Bach Choir joined forces with Gloucestershire schools to mount a singing project which culminated in a concert performance at Cheltenham Town Hall at 7.30 on Saturday 19th March 2005. 

The programme consisted of African Sanctus by David Fanshawe - who attended the concert and lent his own special talents to interpretation - and a new piece, Rainland, by Joseph Phibbs which was premiered by 1,000 school children in March 2004 at the Royal Albert Hall. Rainland is a hugely exciting, challenging and dramatic piece written especially for upper voices, adult voices and symphonic wind band.

The performance was conducted by Stephen Jackson, chorus director of the BBC Symphony Chorus and conductor of the Cheltenham Bach Choir and included over 100 young people, 100 members of the Cheltenham Bach Choir and 60 piece Bath Spa University College Wind Band. 

Vocal animateurs, Jason Thornton and Kirsty Carter worked with schools throughout the Spring Term providing a series of free singing workshops to the schools taking part.

This project was designed to

-Support the singing work already being carried out in schools

-Encourage pupils to join in a singing project for the first time

-Give participants the thrill of taking part in a large collaborative piece

-Raise the profile of singing across the county

-Encourage new partnerships between schools and community groups

This was an exciting opportunity. We know from recent collaborative projects in big venues that this is the sort of experience which young people never forget. This was a chance to perform a large-scale, high quality piece with a diverse range of musicians of all ages.

It was with sadness that the choral world learned of David Fanshawe's death on July 5th 2010.