Sir Cliff Richard and Elo’s Bev Bevan introduce West Midland’s Community Choirs as They Sing Out

/ News 27 Apr 2020

News Story

Although Symphony Hall is closed due to the coronavirus outbreak, local community choirs will continue to have the opportunity to share repertoire and perform as a collective online.

Birmingham’s iconic concert hall cannot be silenced and in partnership with associate artists, Black Voices, community choirs from across the West Midlands are being invited to come together in the safety of a digital space. On Saturday 9 May, the first-ever digital Community Spirit workshop will take place with almost 100 participants.

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Music has the power to bring people together. These online choral workshops are ensuring that audiences can do just that. Self-isolation does not need to mean people are isolated from their communities and the re-scheduled anniversary celebration for next year offers some optimism for the future.
Nick Reed, Chief Executive

Last year saw over 350 Community Spirit singers entertaining an audience of more than 1,100 people at Symphony Hall. This year would have been the 10th Anniversary of an annual project providing community choirs the opportunity to perform on Symphony Halls’ stage. The celebratory concert has been rescheduled to July 2021 with tickets on-sale on Friday 1 May 2020.

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I’m so pleased that with Town Hall Symphony Hall, we’ve made it possible for Community Spirit to continue through this difficult time. We have a dedicated space and time for choirs to connect through warm-ups, learning songs and performing together online. I’m nervous and very excited to see how it will all come together!
Carol Pemberton MBE

As a result of this anniversary concert’s postponement, Town Hall Symphony Hall have uncovered a number of performances from West Midlands choirs in our archives and will be sharing these online in the coming weeks. To launch this, Sir Cliff Richard will introduce a performance of The Millennium Prayer by St Stephen’s Gospel Choir which will be broadcast on Facebook on Wednesday 6 May. The following week, ELO’s Bev Bevan will introduce an online screening of Brandhall Community Choir’s performance of Mr Blue Sky.

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