| MusicShare: Music Outreach Programme |
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 MusicShare Concert MusicShare is a simple idea – take a small group of choristers to a school and work with the pupils and their teacher on singing activities. This simple idea has benefited hundreds of young people and their teachers by the delivery of such a project in their schools. They have had access to music making of the highest quality, been exposed to excellent, suitable repertoire and a chance to perform in a beautiful environment. The impact on boys’ singing has been significant. The effect on those involved in MusicShare, pupils, teachers and parents has been profound. Levels of achievement have risen due to the quality of the provision and the commitment of the deliverers. Every school should have the opportunity to be involved in projects such as MusicShare.
Each term, boy choristers from Lichfield Cathedral and members of the Lichfield Cathedral School Girls’ Choir visit three schools and take part in a vocal workshop with children from those schools. The end result is a concert, held in the cathedral, where the three schools and the two choirs come together to perform in front of parents and local dignitaries alike and it is a hugely exhilarating experience for all involved. The repertoire ranges from the Mozart to the Beatles! The project is set to expand with a huge injection of funding from the government in their new singing campaign entitled Sing-Up under which the Choir Schools' Association (and therefore many cathedrals across the country) will deliver part of the workshops and teacher training that will hopefully see a major regeneration of singing in our schools. As part of this expansion, the cathedral has also set-up the Lichfield Cathedral Young Voices, a new choir for young singers aged between 8 and 13. The choir is a free, non-audition choir and is run by two directors Cathy Lamb, The Assistant Organist and Assistant Director of Music of the Cathedral and Martyn Rawles, Assistant Director of Music and Sub Organist of Lichfield Cathedral. Both Martyn and Cathy are heavily involved in the MusicShare singing workshops in local schools – Cathy also runs the Lichfield Cathedral School Girls’ Choir and has extensive experience with young singers. Martyn has recently joined Lichfield from Gloucester Cathedral where one of his jobs was to run the Gloucester Cathedral Youth Choir. Anyone interested in joining this choir should contact Mrs Cathy Lamb via the School on 01543 306170. |