Friday Afternoons at Snape Maltings and beyond

Children at Snape Maltings' Friday Afternoons project (Photo: Snape Maltings)

On 17 November 2017 (the nearest Friday to Britten's birthday) 800 young people, from 21 schools across Suffolk, including primary, high and special educational needs schools, will come together at Snape Maltings to perform songs by Luke Styles, Jonathan Dove, Nico Muhly, Gwyneth Herbert, Jason Yarde and Benjamin Britten’s Friday Afternoons.

Conceived as a response to Britten's centenary in 2013 and inspired by Britten's songs Friday Afternoons, which were written for use in his brother's school's Friday afternoon singing, Friday Afternoons is a UK-wide and international singing project led by the Snape Maltings. Each year Friday Afternoons commissions a new set of songs, over time creating a significant resource of songs especially written for young people’s voices. Now in its fifth year, the annual project champions the joy of collective singing and encourages as many young people as possible to join in. Composer Luke Styles has written this year’s new set with librettist Alan McKendrick which were premiered at the Aldeburgh Festival in June.

All the resources to learn the songs, including scores, recordings, teaching resources and interactive material from Charanga, are available to download free of charge from the Friday Afternoons website www.fridayafternoonsmusic.co.uk

There will also be Friday Afternoons events on 17 November all over the country, including Music Education Hubs, schools and arts organisations from Nottingham, Saffron Walden, Sevenoaks, Aberdeenshire, Wakefield, Ryedale and London. Viewers will be able to watch a selection of the performances taking place across the UK on the Friday Afternoons website at a later datethe Friday Afternoons website www.fridayafternoonsmusic.co.uk