In pictures: the award-nominated ‘We are Shadows’

As many of you may have heard, we’ve been fortunate enough to be shortlisted twice(!) for this year’s RPS Music Awards.

In the RPS Music Award for Learning & Participation category is last Summer’s fantastic We are Shadows - our opera project that was two years in the making and involved over 300 participants of all ages from Tower Hamlets.

It’s got us reminiscing about the project and so we thought we’d take the opportunity to share a selection of images captured from along the way. We hope you enjoy!

Composer John Barber and librettist Hazel Gould

Workshopping with The Sixteen at Village Underground

Rehearsal at Barbican Centre

Director Mia Theil Have in rehearsals a Barbican Centre

The City Chorus in rehearsal at Barbican Centre

Robert Anthony Gardiner as Toby

The City Chorus

Toby, his Shadow, Rattus Rattus and the Shadow Voice

Rattus Rattus and some of the young rats

Shoreditch Church dressed for We are Shadows

If you fancy a little bit more, have a look at the We are Shadows videos on our YouTube channel. There’s a great documentary from Andy Weir, and you can enjoy a short film below:

Images by Jez C Self.

A ‘Fire’ starter

If you passed by the Attlee Youth & Community Centre last week you may have wondered – as did the guys who turned up for their usually quiet Tuesday evening football match – what was going on as scores of people poured in through the door. This was the first gathering of the “Fire choir”, coming together for some fun singing, to meet the composer David Bruce, and to give a section of his new commission Fire a whirl.

Sam Chaplin and the 'Fire' singers

The 96 amateur singers in attendance were in fine voice and quickly built up into part singing under the direction of chorus leader, Sam Chaplin. After a break to catch up with faces old and new it was time to tackle Fire. This they did with admirable ease, the section worked on coming together quickly and sounding very fine – which bodes well for the performances in June and July!

The more experienced in the group ably supported those new to choral singing, including one young woman who’d turned up for something else but got gathered into the fold. Her parting remark was “I never thought music could be fun; but I’ll be back!”

If you’d like to join her in giving at a whirl there are still places available, especially for male voices. To find out how to get involved contact Natalie Ellis on 020 7377 0287 or send an email.

Cathy Birch
Programme Manager: Learning & Participation 

Intern Diaries: Community choirs, Christmas songs & back to school

Two months have passed since my last post and I’m now just over half way through my internship. The L&P calendar for Spring 2012 is super busy, full of really interesting and enjoyable projects.  I was recently at a session in Osmani Primary School with a Year 3 class and they were starting work on a joint project with the Royal Academy of Music. I’m enjoying the variety of work that I’m experiencing as part of my internship and all the lovely people I’m getting to meet!

Neighbourhood Songs at the Spitalfields Music Winter Festival 2011

Recruitment has started once again for the two community singing groups, Spitalfields Singers and Women sing East.  I’m really looking forward to working with both these choirs again and will be very sad to say goodbye to them at the end of this term!  The Women Sing East concert in our Winter Festival was a definite highlight for me.  With the support of Clare I was project managing this concert.  As a musician I have played in many concerts, but this was the first time that I had been on the other side – managing the musicians! The concert was a huge success – the choir sounded absolutely fantastic and Laka sang a wonderful arrangement of the ‘Christmas Song’ to get us all in the Christmas spirit.  This was a truly magical concert – my face muscles ached from smiling so much!

Kathryn Allnutt                                                                                                    Learning and Participation Intern

Women sing East

Watching Women sing East rehearse for their performance on Wednesday night was a joy and a revelation. Having heard so much about the all-female choir from my colleagues at Spitalfields Music I was interested to find out for myself what all the fuss was about! Coming into the performance hall at the Brady Centre I was immediately struck by the energy and enthusiasm emanating from the group. Led by charismatic artistic director, Laka D, the ladies of Women sing East smiled and swayed as they ran through their renditions of well-known popular music pieces and a number of original songs. When the rehearsal had finished I managed to have a quick chat with a few of the group’s members whose comments were nothing but positive when discussing their WsE experience, one lady said that their sessions were highlight of her week.

Alas, I was unable to stay for the final performance (I was particularly disappointed to miss the full version of God Only Knows!) however, I will now be making every effort to catch their show at the Summer Festival!

Charlotte Linton
Box Office Manager

Catch Women sing East perform in the Summer Festival this year on Friday 17 June at Shoreditch Church

My first two weeks… as a MAASer

The six MAASers (Music Animateur Apprentices) came together for the first time for our training day last week. Phil Mullen, our incredible leader for group work and leadership, described us as “the Marines of music leadership”, which is a bit scary! Phil’s session made me think about lots of aspects of working with groups that I haven’t consciously considered before – even if you naturally do them without thinking about it. It’s so good to be aware of things like how groups form, and how to make a good atmosphere in a session. I came away very inspired.

“The last week has been so inspiring that I find myself thinking about workshops all the time. My subconscious is trying to plan sessions for me!”

In the afternoon James Redwood led a session of songs and games to add to our workshop leader’s toolbox. I loved watching him work, particularly the little ways he encourages a group, like imagining eating a whole bottle of E numbers and having scary “E number eyes” to re-energize! We ended up with so many activities that our heads were all buzzing by the time we left, and fragments of songs were going round my head for days, which is great.

A few days later I attended my first project session with Women sing East, led by the amazing Laka D. The choir are all so nice and friendly, but most of all they are so enthusiastic about and committed to singing. As a classical singer I have never learned by ear and it was so refreshing to see Laka teach this way, and to hear the choir learn by repetition and building up of parts. It really built a sense of togetherness and by the end of the rehearsal the first song was already sounding really good. I look forward to becoming more involved in the group and learning more songs – it sounds like a very exciting term!

The last week has been so inspiring that I find myself thinking about workshops all the time. My subconscious is trying to plan sessions for me! In the next few weeks and months I’m going to try to shadow as many people in the world of opera and vocal leadership as possible. As well as learning a wide variety of approaches, games and songs, and making contact with people in the industry, I am also looking to see similar threads and progressions between activities so I can learn how sessions are planned and built up. I’m also beginning my second project, Madrigals & Fables with a Year 3 class, in a few weeks and I can’t wait to get started!

Penny Desbruslais
Music Animateur Apprentice

See the results of our MAASer’s project in Madrigals & Fables on Wednesday 15 December at 12.30pm, Christ Church Spitalfields.