Education and Outreach

Voice Factory is the City of Birmingham Choir’s well-established education programme. Encouraging and promoting choral singing, it gives opportunities for both adult and young singers to develop their skills.

Voice Factory – Young people

In this programme, which has seen a variety of successful ventures including workshops, subsidised tuition and performances in Symphony Hall and Town Hall, the Choir seeks to encourage music making with young people and to help provide singers for the choirs of the future.

Bournville Young Singers

We have set up a link with Bournville Young Singers, an independent choir covering an age range of 5 to 18+ comprised of a Training Choir, a Main Choir and a Chamber Choir for their more experienced members.

Last year the City of Birmingham Choir supported a voice-coaching programme for the Bournville Young Singers.  We have also created a range of other links that will prove to be of mutual benefit, including recruitment and marketing schemes as well as linking up for performances.  The BYS are already involved in the Equinox project, which is taking place next March.

Find out more at www.bournvilleyoungsingers.org.uk

Schools Orchestras

In October 2010 we performed Verdi’s Requiem with the English Schools Orchestra in Symphony Hall under their conductor, Robert Pepper MBE.  Then, in May 2011 we performed Carmina Burana in an acclaimed collaboration with the Birmingham Schools Symphony Orchestra with Michael Seal conducting. 

These events provided great opportunities for school students to perform in Symphony Hall with a full-sized chorus, and it was also a rewarding experience for the choir to work with these talented young musicians.

Voice Factory – Choir members

All Choir members take time out from rehearsals for professional coaching sessions in small groups.  This is aimed at raising individual singing standards and improving the Choir’s ensemble performance.  These sessions are tutored by Julian Wilkins.

New and Young members

We aim to encourage greater access to the Choir by providing new applicants with the means to improve their vocal skills as they join.  The scheme offers financial support towards the cost of singing lessons for a limited number of new members in each year.  Also all Choir members in the age range 16 – 25 are offered a series of free singing lessons.

Choral Conducting

As a means of benefiting some of the many Choir members, and others, who have interests in wider choral activities, we have run two Choral Conducting workshops led by our own conductor, Adrian Lucas.

Our Track Record…

You can see from the list of Voice Factory projects to date that we have been enterprising and innovative over a number of years.  This has involved much hard work from our dedicated members, who are all volunteers, and the support of many funders – to whom we are very grateful. Please have a look at this LEAFLET.

Voice_Factory_leaflet

Funding

To pay for these schemes and to continue them in the future, we have to raise the funds needed.  We are grateful to the various charitable trusts, corporate partners and individual donors for providing support for the Voice Factory programme. If you think you could help us with this important work – or you know of someone else who might – please contact our fundraising group, selecting “Supporting the Choir”.