Alnwick schools to join The Joyful Company of Singers for musical workshops

The award-winning chamber choir, the Joyful Company of Singers - JCS - will be touring North Northumberland for the first time and their schedule includes musical workshops with the Duchess’s Community High School - DCHS - and St Michael’s and Swansfield Park Primary Schools.

A small group of singers will join the children to sing familiar Northumbrian folksongs such as ‘Dance ti thy Daddy’, play traditional singing games and experience singing together in harmony. Wooler composer John Casken will also work with them to explore ways of improvising and composing with voices, focussing on his piece ‘Uncertain Sea’, a setting of words by Beadnell poet Katrina Porteous.

Gavin Johnston, Head of St Michael’s C of E Primary School, said: “We strongly encourage music-making by all our students here and we’re delighted to host this innovative project with JCS, John Casken, Swansfield Park Primary and our own St. Michael’s ceilidh band and instrumentalists to widen their singing horizons. This is a great opportunity to work with a leading choir - both for the children and the community as well.”

John Casken’s compositions feature in the choir’s two related but distinct evening concerts, exploring themes of the sea and life’s voyages, at Wooler on Saturday 4th May and Alnwick on Sunday 5th May.

The choir’s Alnwick programme includes works by Parry, Vaughan Williams, Tavener, MacMillan and Bingham as well as Northumbrian folksong arrangements, and was specially chosen to include works by British composers who are being studied by DCHS students for their public exams.

The students will be able to join a rehearsal and put their questions to leading choral director Peter Broadbent MBE, founder-conductor of JCS, and attend the concert which also features Katrina Porteous reading from her own works.

Jonathan Ridley, Head of Music at DCHS, said: “It is very rare for a performing group of this quality to adapt a concert programme to include works specifically for the benefit of school students. We are very grateful for this opportunity to experience live performance of music by composers they are studying, and look forward to it with enthusiasm”.

The Joyful Company of Singers will be performing in Wooler on Saturday 4th May at Ad Gefrin Anglo-Saxon Museum and Whisky Distillery at 2.15pm and St Mary’s Church at 7.30pm as part of the Wooler Arts Summer Concerts series. Next day, Sunday 5th, they will sing at The Alnwick Garden at 1.45pm and St Paul’s Church, Alnwick at 7pm.

Everyone is welcome to come and enjoy their performances. The half-hour afternoon ‘taster concerts’ are free to visitors to the attractions and tickets for the evening concerts are available on the door or online via Wooler Arts and Eventbrite respectively, with full details and links on www.jcos.co.uk/performances.