SOUNDSTORM/VOCES8 SUMMER SCHOOL: 26, 27, 28 JULY 2010

Lighthouse, Poole's Centre for the Arts

This summer holiday, SoundStorm is running a special summer holiday project to launch a youth choir for Bournemouth and Poole, in partnership with Lighthouse, Poole's Centre for the Arts. The three days of singing workshops will climax in a debut concert of the new choir in Lighthouse Studio at 6pm on Wednesday 28 July - a concert which will also feature the award-winning full VOCES8 a capella choir.

Don't miss this amazing opportunity to sing and learn with some of the hottest young singing leaders in the UK.

 

The main details of the 3 days are outlined below but if you need more information, please don't hesitate to contact Dan Somogyi (SoundStorm) on 07811 369062

 

AGE RANGE: 12-18 (though exceptions may be made for exceptional candidates)

COST: £40 for all 3 days. Bursaries may be available   

Book through Lighthouse Box Office: 0844 406 8666 or

online at www.lighthousepoole.co.uk

IMPORTANT: Participants need to commit to attending all three days and to appearing in the finale concert on the Wednesday evening, to which parents, friends etc. will be invited

Venue: Lighthouse Function Rooms 1&2 (on the First Floor)

Lighthouse, Poole's Centre for the Arts, Kingland Road, Poole BH15 1UG

 

 More Info:

  • The workshop sessions will be fun but challenging for young people age 12-18.  
  • It will be an inclusive choir - we welcome both readers and non-readers of music.
  • We want as many strong singers/musicians as we can get, who really want to develop their singing in an informal and fun setting.
  • We want young people to come who are willing to work hard over the 3 days to produce a really strong concert at the end.

The aim is that the choir will continue as a youth choir beyond this project and sessions will resume in the autumn. Repertoire will be mixed: from classical to West End to popular to light-hearted

 

Timetable: Monday 26 and Tuesday 27 July

9.30 - 10.45, Break,11 - 12.30, Lunch, 1.15- 2.45, Break, 3 - 4.30pm

Wednesday 28th: As above but participants need to stay until 7.15pm for the performance.

 

Upon booking, participants will be sent further info about special lunch offers etc during the 3 days of the course.

 

ABOUT VOCES8

VOCES8 is the foremost young a capella choral group in Britain performing unique and exciting arrangements of repertoire ranging from pop songs through to jazz through to early polyphonic music.  They are rapidly becoming the superstars of this genre! VOCES have won a range of top prizes including the 44th International Grand Prix in Gorizia (2005), and first prize at the recent European Choral Grand Prix in Spain (2008). Their reputation is spreading far and wide and they have recently completed acclaimed tours of Kenya, Italy, France, USA and China. They featured on BBC1's Songs of Praise programme in April 2010.

 

Education is a key part of VOCES8's work and they have been heavily involved in the national SING UP programme. They have released 5 albums to considerable critical acclaim

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TUTORS:  Choir leaders will be Greg Hallam and Oliver-John Ruthven.  

Greg Hallam was educated at Chetham’s School of Music in Manchester and, in 2008, graduated from the Royal College of Music with a BMus(Hons) degree in singing having studied with Ashley Stafford. Greg was a member of the National Youth Choir of Great Britain for ten years and was Baritone section leader for several courses. He toured twice with NYC – around Australasia, Samoa and Singapore in 2003, and Eastern Europe in 2006. He has recently been musical and pastoral assistant for the junior choirs and Conducting Scholar for the National Youth Training Choir. Greg has recently completed a Master of Arts in Choral Conducting at the Royal Academy of Music with generous financial support from the Derek Butler Trust and the John Taylor Memorial Trust. He teaches singing at Lady Margaret’s School in Parson’s Green and is Chorus Master of Bracknell Choral Society. He has worked with several youth choirs as a conductor and vocal coach and was, until recently, Musical Director of The Cappella Singers of Upminster. Greg has been involved in the most recent VOCES8 project in Bournemouth and Poole schools. 2008 saw the re-establishment of the ‘Penkhull Festival of Music and Art’ in Stoke-on-Trent headed by Greg in his position as Artistic Director.

Greg has had the pleasure of performing with Philharmonia Voices, under Richard Hickox and Esa-Pekka Salonen, London Voices, Voces Cantabiles and the Royal Academy of Music Chamber Choir on their tour to a monastery in Neresheim, Germany.  Recent solo experience include the bass solos in Handel’s Messiah, Haydn’s Creation, Rossini’s Petite Messe Solenelle (with Stanmore Choral Society) and the baritone solos in Vaughan-Williams’ Fantasia on Christmas Carols and the Requiems of both Fauré and Duruflé.

Oliver-John Ruthven began his musical career as a chorister at Westminster Abbey, singing under the direction of Martin Neary from 1992 - 1998. He graduated in 2006 with a first class honours degree in Music from the University of Manchester, and has been living and working in London since then as a conductor and singer. Oliver-John is music director of Hampstead Garden Opera Company and has conducted L'elisir d'amore (Donizetti) - November 2008, Susannah (Floyd) - April/May 2009, Venus & Adonis (Blow)/Dido & Aeneas (Purcell) - November 2009 and La Clemenza di Tito - April/May 2010. He is continuing a year of Mozart with the company, conducting Die Zauberflöte - November 2010. He is looking forward to starting as keyboards apprentice on the Monteverdi Choir Apprenticeship Scheme, working alongside John Eliot Gardiner.

Oliver-John has worked as cover conductor for the Royal Ballet in their production of The Dream at Covent Garden in May and June 2008, and until April 2008, he was acting director of the Hallé Youth Choir, assisting Mark Elder and James Burton. He is founder director of the Oriana Ensemble, a London based chamber orchestra set up in 2006 and comprising young professional musicians from across the UK. Oliver-John is also Associate Music Director of Nimbus Theatre Company, with whom he has staged the UK premiere of Edges (Pasek & Paul) at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2008. Music Theatre credits include Flatpack: The Opera (performed in IKEA Wembley), Kiss Me Kate (Cole Porter), Assassins (Sondheim) and Little Shop of Horrors (Menken).

He is busy as a singer, working as a tenor lay clerk at St. Etheldreda's, Ely Place, as well as singing regularly with Philharmonia Voices, Stile Antico and Ex Cathedra.

Other members of the VOCES 8 choir and education team will also be leading sessions and the whole choir will be present all day on the Wednesday!