Friday, 26 March 2021

From Corwall to Cumbria, Southend to Scotland by way of Scunthorpe, children's choirs from across the country to premiere Russell Hepplewhite & Michael Rosen's EVERYTHING

Friday Afternoons

Friday Afternoons is a project that arose out of the Britten Centenary in 2013, when Britten's own set of songs for children, Friday Afternoons (written for his brother's school) were revived in a national project. Since 2013, a new set of songs and other resources has been made available annually with Friday Afternoons projects being run in schools all around the UK and across the world. Past composers have included Errollyn Wallen, Luke Styles, Jonathan Dove, Nico Muhly, Gwyneth Herbert, Jason Yarde, Elliott Kendall, John Woolrich, Jon Boden, Rachel Portman, Sally Beamish, Talvin Singh, The Unthanks, Zoe Dixon and Benjamin Britten’s original songs for Friday Afternoons

Friday Afternoons logo
Last year, it was the turn of Russell Hepplewhite who collaborated with former Children’s Laureate Michael Rosen to created EVERYTHING a cycle of 12 songs about...well, pretty much everything! The elements, human discovery, invention, movement, language, atoms and cells all feature. These songs are designed to fire up the imaginations of infant and primary school children with a healthy dose of fun, humour, playfulness, and heart.

Because of restrictions last year, only two of the songs was premiered, but now the remaining 10 songs are receiving their on-line premiere on 14 May 2021 on the Britten Pears Arts' YouTube channel.

Each of the ten unperformed songs will be premiered one of ten choirs that were selected after an open call in December last year, and they hail from right across the Britain and Ireland. The ten choirs are:

  • Amherst School Choir, Kent
  • Cornwall County Choirs
  • Dublin Youth Choir
  • The Grange Choir, Monmouth Boys' Prep
  • Lodge Moor Childrens Choir, Sheffield
  • The National Youth Choir of Scotland
  • Poco Amabile, Cumbria
  • Scunthorpe Co-Operative Junior Choir
  • Somerleyton Primary School Choir, Suffolk
  • Southend Boys' and Girls' Choirs

Further information and resources from the Friday Afternoons website.

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