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Close-Up On: 20th November 2015

23 November 2015

Friday 20 November was the Big Sing, the culmination of Friday Afternoons 2015 where a schools across the country (and further afield) sang the new songs by Nico Muhly in events both large and small. We helped a handful of these schools to stream their events live so even more could watch and take part.

Aldeburgh Music at Snape Maltings Concert Hall

Here at Snape we had 670 Suffolk school children come and join us in a Big Sing led by Pete Letanka and Paul Whittaker.

The following Suffolk schools took part at the event on site:

  • Alde Valley Academy , Leiston
  • Aldeburgh Primary School
  • The Ashley School, Lowestoft
  • Bacton Primary  School
  • Britannia Primary School, Ipswich
  • East Bergholt Primary School
  • Great Barton Primary School
  • Halifax Primary School, Ipswich
  • Handford Hall Primary School, Ipswich
  • Howard Primary School, Ipswich
  • Nayland Primary School
  • Ringsfield and Brampton Federation
  • Sir John Leman High School, Beccles
  • St Gregory Primary School, Sudbury
  • St Helen’s Primary School, Ipswich
  • St Joseph’s RC Primary School, Bury St Edmunds
  • St Matthew’s Primary School, Ipswich
  • Whitehouse Primary School, Ipswich
  • Wilby Primary School

It was great to see so many children, and teachers having a good time and singing together!

We were also joined by Nico Muhly and Michael Morpurgo. Both took to the stage and talked to the schools about the importance of music in both of their lives.

Michael also presented Cassie White, the winner of the Britten Young Songwriter Competition 2015 with a signed professionally typeset score, and introduced four professional singers who then performed her winning entry to the hall.

Watch the whole performance again below...

Elsewhere in the UK...

Saffron Hall hosted a huge event with Dominic Peckham:

We also streamed groups from around the country. To see their videos, please click here.

These groups were:

  • Cornwall Music Hub
  • St Mary's, Newcastle-under-Lyme
  • Derbyshire Music Hub
  • London Youth Choir (Hackney Outreach Project)

Other Activity

We also had activity going on further afield, with groups taking place in Croatia and Singapore. You can see other activity that happened on our interactive map. Please let us know if you had your own event, we'd love to hear from you.

Future Events...

We have groups carrying on with Friday Afternoons 2015 into early next year, so keep your eyes peeled for more information about these. We are also releasing new songs for 2016... we don't stop!