We were delighted to receive further funding from Snape Maltings (formerly Aldeburgh Music) to run a second singing project with local schools. This follows on from our previous Friday Afternoons project in 2017 which saw local school children sing the music of Jonathan Dove as part of the international singing project which started in 2013 to celebrate the centenary of composer Benjamin Britten. 

This year, Ellie Martin, our Youth Choir Director, engaged with local school children to teach songs by Luke Styles and Nico Muhly and develop creative responses to these songs in preparation for a final 
sharing event at the Cathedral. The project began with an interative Continuing Professional 
Development session for school teachers who were then able to observe Ellie ‘in action’ as she worked with our Cathedral Youth Choir - highlighting excellent approaches to choral leading and how to introduce contemporary music to young singers (with remarkable ease). Each school then received a singing workshop in which to learn a song of their choice and put together their own creative response.

Due to heavy snow-fall and the resulting school closures, our sharing event on Friday 2 March was postponed and rescheduled to Friday 23 March when pupils from St Margaret Clitherow, Seely Primary, and Park Vale Academy came together to share their performances to an appreciative audience of family and friends. The informal concert finished with a performance (from memory) of ‘Old Abram Brown’, one of Britten’s original Friday Afternoons songs, which Ellie taught to the children just moments before the concert. 

We are grateful to the staff and students of these schools for engaging so deeply with the project and hope to continue working with local schools to provide opportunities for youth music making at the Cathedral.

The Diocesan Choir workshop is held twice a year in Cathedral Hall and is an opportunity 
for singers from across the Diocese to learn new music in preparation for Diocesan events alongside the Cathedral Choral Scholars. New members are always welcome and one such member, Irene Smura, reflects on her first experience with the choir:

As a child I attended Mass at St Barnabas Cathedral until the family moved to another parish. I love singing but never had the opportunity to sing in a Church choir. At the beginning of 2018, I decided to join the Diocesan Choir and contacted Alex Patterson who was happy for me to join.

I attended the Workshop day (Saturday 24 February) for the Chrism Mass and enjoyed meeting others from other churches who welcomed me as a newcomer to the choir. The music we sang was a real pleasure to learn and sing especially Ave Verum Corpus by Edward Elgar and also learning to sing plainsong. I came away from the Workshop feeling uplifted.

I have never attended a Chrism Mass before but it was an awesome experience. I was guided in my singing by the other choir members and I thought it went exceptionally well in that I was emotionally and spiritually moved. I feel privileged to have been able to sing as a member of the choir and it has helped my vocal development and appreciation of Church music.

The second workshop moved into parts singing, and this was really where Grace, Leah, Hayden and James came into their own. Although some of the parishioners were able to sight-sing, a recurring difficulty was the combining of various voices whilst keeping each cohort singing their own distinct line. Four solid voices leading the sopranos, altos, tenors and basses made short work of keeping parishioners in line, and with confidence solidified smiles broke out on faces previously pensive to make too much noise “in case someone hears me”.

Our final workshop of the afternoon was a prelude to choral vespers, an initiative which the parish had been undertaking for some months, but which certainly needed a lift. Work was done on the way in which psalms can be sung, and lines broken up or combined, as well as understanding how the psalm tones relate to the syllables in each stanza. Some of the parish vespers is sung in English and some in Latin, and the relationship between the four- and five-line stave notations was explored, 
before practically applying this newly acquired knowledge to actually singing from the Psalms, the ‘hymn book of the Old Testament’. 

When five o’clock came round, and other parishioners joined for vespers, the difference from the previous week was obvious for all to behold. Clearly, five singers of Cathedral standing helped . . . but the members of the newly constituted parish choir were able to hold their own, singing with a new-found confidence and conviction, and allowing their God-given voices to soar to the rafters.

Our first Diocesan Youth Singing Day was designed as an exciting opportunity for children and young people aged 8 - 18 from across our Diocese to come together and sing for a day at the Cathedral. The event took place on Saturday 10 February 2018 and was led by Ellie Martin - her fun and enthusiastic approach to singing made the day most enjoyable for those who were able to attend. 

The children spent most of the day learning gospel and spiritual songs such as ‘This Little Light Of Mine’, ‘Elijah Rock!’ and ‘Didn’t It Rain’ which Ellie taught aurally. They then gave an informal performance of these songs (from memory and some including actions) to family and friends before a mega Gospel medley which included fantastic audience participation. 

Feedback from the children and parents was overwhelmingly positive with some parents highlighting the importance of such events considering the lack of regular choral singing in the more remote areas of the Diocese.