MUSIC

Many of Bristol’s numerous community choirs are amongst those coming together for a citywide celebration of song. Ben Welch stays in tune.

In case it’s escaped your attention, Bristol is singing. Take a casual stroll around St Andrews, Southville, Clifton or almost any other area of an evening and it won’t be rare to hear the resonant sounds of a 60+ -strong community choir floating though the balmy air – whether it’s happenstance or coordinated effort, more of us are singing than ever before.

It’s only right, then, that Bristol should be launching its bid to become the City of Song with a dedicated new Festival of Song, with arts charity Gathering Voices bringing together Bristol’s dozens of community and classical ensembles in one all-singing, some-dancing celebration of the power of the voice.

Hannah Klewin is the festival’s director, and she’s as bemused as everyone else as to where this wave of enthusiasm has emerged from. “I think there’s a long history of choral music in Bristol,” she offers. “I don’t have much historical fact to support that statement but it’s said a lot. Nationally, singing has got a much higher profile in recent years, and people are celebrating it as something that’s quite interesting to do.” What isn’t in question is the sheer volume of ordinary Bristolians meeting, on a regular basis, to join together in song. “I did some research late last year,” she reveals. “I did a really unscientific trawl through all the sources of information I could find and discovered that there must be at least 2,500 individual adults singing each week, though I think there must be more.”

The festival takes place over eight days, from 16 to 24 October, and will take in around 70 of Bristol’s community and classical choirs in free and paid-for events, as well as a series of workshops catering for both beginners and established crooners. Song trails will take place throughout the event too, offering curious amblers the chance to get on their walking boots and visit the choirs for performances in their native habitats. “I wanted to see it visually, all of these choirs,” explains Hannah. “We took the arts trail idea, that people open their doors and let you have a nose around. But I think it will help people who have caught wind of what’s going on and want to join in, but haven’t taken that step yet – people with all the traditional hang-ups, who think they can’t sing.”

To that end you might practise your Queen’s in ‘Orffly Good’, a workshop led by classical soprano Laurie Gethin aimed at teaching students to sing classically by ear, or attend the Voices of Bristol concert in St George’s and witness the whole spectrum of the city’s choirs in one day. You might even find yourself the beneficiary of a ‘song bath’, set upon by Hannah’s own World Roots group and treated to a panoramic, personal performance. And Gathering Voices is not short of ambition either. Next year they hope to open out the festival to the entire region and, with the government-funded Sing Up campaign coming to an end in 2011, the next generation of enthused choristers have already been trained to carry forward Bristol’s budding status as the City of Song.

“The statement I would quite happily make is that we’ve got more people singing per square mile than anywhere else in the country,” smiles Hannah, with just a hint of wry provocation in her voice. “I don’t know why it’s here: maybe someone should apply for a study. But we recently got declared the happiest city, and we’re PRS’s most musical city. To be the City of Song – it feels like those things go together.”

THE GATHERING VOICES FESTIVAL OF SONG RUNS UNTIL 24 OCT ACROSS THE CITY. FFI VISIT WWW.FESTIVALOFSONG.ORG.UK
 

Copyright Ben Welch 2010 

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