Sing Up Projects

The final concert for the International Voices project

‘Lift your banners high, let our friendship never end’ were the words sung by 160 children at the final International Voices concert last night (24 February). And indeed banners were lifted high- beautiful silk flags made by the children, and waved to the accompaniment of voices, African drums, and Cornish music to a rapt audience at St Petroc’s Church.

 This concert was the culmination of months of hard work, and an exciting partnership between schools in Cornwall and schools in Kenya. Run by Sing Up and Kernow Education Arts Partnership, the International Voices project draws on the inspiration of the Olympics and the composers and artists working with Youth Music Voices, the British Council’s international links and existing Connecting Classrooms project.

Young singers from Boscastle Primary school

The Cornish cluster, led by Bodmin College, consisted of St Petroc’s, Boscastle, St Dennis, Trevisker and Threemilestone primary schools. During the project the schools hosted a visit back in November from a musician, teacher and student from Nairobi, created African drum rhythms with Amanda Pickering, art work inspired by the Cornish Kenyan links with Sarah Hunkin, and most importantly learnt about Kenyan culture and Cornish culture through song. 

Hilary & Neil from Dalla accompanied the performance

The programme for the final concert was varied including a new version of the traditional Kenyan welcoming song, ‘Jambo’ to which Cornish musicians, ‘Dalla’ added a second melody complete with Cornish lyrics creating, ‘Jambo Kernow’. The now famous song, ‘Cousin Jack’ by Steve Knightly of Show of Hands was led by Bodmin College’s Young Sing Leaders, with enthusiastic chorus from the massed primary school choir, and the audience. Tilly Tomkins, a student from Bodmin College directed the choir for ‘Sunset’ by Nitin Sawney, a song composed especially for the International Voices project. Films and images of the project as a whole completed the evening.

 Angela Renshaw, the Area Leader for Sing Up in Cornwall who made this work happen said, ‘What we have taken away most from this project is new friends, both in Cornwall and in Kenya. These schools would not normally have worked together as a cluster, being spread across Cornwall, and the relationships that have been created are long lasting. The quality of singing from the children has improved dramatically, with a glorious quality of sound at last night’s performance.’

 Sing Up’s aim is to ensure that there is singing at the heart of every primary school, and one of the best ways to do this is to give teachers the skills and confidence to lead singing. Angela said, ‘This has been a journey of friendship and professional development. Every teacher directed a song last night, something that was not lost on our visitors from Sing Up in London.’

Flags created by the schools with artist Sarah Hunkin

 This phase of Sing Up comes to an end at the end of March, but don’t worry, we’ve got something up our sleeves! Keep your eye on the Sing Up website www.singup.org for national development and the KEAP website www.keap.org.uk for our exciting local programme.

Dr Paul Whittaker led workshops working with children within a cluster of schools including special schools. Mainstream school pupils learned a selection of songs by signing to perform with children for whom signing is their main form of communication.

After a first week with the schools earlier this year, the MATD team return in June 2009 for a week of workshops culminating in a final concert at Truro Cathedral on Thursday 18 June 2009.

If you want more information about this project, please contact Area leader Angela Renshaw on keapcornwall@singup.org

There is a well known saying in Cornwall that ‘a mine is a hole anywhere in the world with at least one Cornishman at the bottom of it!’ Young people from 28 Cornish schools brought this story alive through songs and music reflecting the Cornish mining heritage across the world at the Hall for Cornwall on 23 June 2010.

As the culmination of a Super Sing Up cluster project over 500 young people from the secondary schools and their feeder primaries in Bodmin, Brannel, Camelford, Wadebridge and Richard Lander created a performance charting the journey from Cornwall to America, Africa and Australia by Cornish miners in the 18th and 19th centuries. They performed to a sell out audience at Hall for Cornwall with the audience joining in the finale song, ‘Cornwall, the land I love,’ by Richard Gendall.
Sing Up is the Music Manifesto’s National Singing Programme for primary school-aged children in England and the Super Sing Up Clusters are managed by Continyou and are funded programmes that enable secondary schools to lead on exciting singing projects with their feeder primary schools.

This programme has involved Young Singing Leaders from the secondary schools leading singing activities in the feeder primaries, and professional singing leaders Barry Hawken, Zoe Zallick, Kirsty Rowe and Sing Up Area Leader Angela Renshaw providing songs, training and support to students and teachers. The performance included musical accompaniment from Cornish bands Dall and Leski, along with Imerys Mid Cornwall Male Voice Choir. The performance was animated by Cscape Dance Company and the whole story was pulled together using short films of archive photos kindly sent by descendants of Cornish miners through the Cornish American Heritage Society and the SW Wisconsin Cornish Society. Angela Renshaw, Sing Up Area Leader said, ‘Having contact with the families of Cornish miners in America really made the project seem real. They were very excited about the project and gave us lots of history about their families, along with the photos. This gave such an edge to the performance, the nostalgia created by these photos along with archive pictures of Cornwall as a working, mining community gave gravitas to the children’s performances.’

Sing Up in Cornwall is hosted by Kernow Education Arts Partnership who have also been helping to shape this project. Helen Reynolds from KEAP says, ‘Ruins of mining chimneys are part of the Cornish landscape and such an important part of Cornwall’s history. It’s wonderful for children to discover that Cornwall was such a leading force in mining skills around the world, and that the Cornish influence is still so evident today in some of those communities.’

Truro Cathedral Scholars as part of the Richard Lander cluster performance

The Wadebridge Cluster performance

Images for Cousin Jacks by Sean Hurlock www.seanhurlockphotography.com