Sing Up & Surrey Songsters
Guildford Cathedral in partnership with Lanesborough School is delighted to have been awarded a second year of funding from Sing Up, the National Singing Programme, to provide Chorister Outreach to local primary schools.
Since September 2008 we have worked in nine local schools with around 460 children. The schools benefit from 8 hours of tuition from a dedicated Singing Leader, working with an agreed package of material. Katherine Dienes-Williams, the Cathedral's Organist and Master of the Choristers, and some of her choristers join one of the sessions. The staff of the schools concerned are also offered a wrap-up session aimed at sustaining the achievements of the programme beyond its duration and at encouraging confidence to promote singing in the classroom. At the end of term the schools come together for a concert to celebrate their achievements.
A second strand of the outreach programme has been the establishment of The Surrey Songsters. The Songsters is a junior choir for local primary school children in Years 3-6 and they have been meeting weekly at Lanesborough School since the beginning of January 2009 under the leadership of Katherine Dienes-Williams and Brian Cotterill (Director of Music at Lanesborough). There are 25 regular members from 10 local schools. There are no auditions for the choir, the choir welcomes new members and it is free to join. For further information please contact singup@guildford-cathedral.org.
If you would like to hear the schools and the Songsters in action, together with the full Cathedral choir of men and boys, our end of term concert dates for 2009/10 are 4 December, 18 March and 24 June, all at 5.30pm in the Cathedral. All are very welcome!
