User:Martin.Brophy/Various Voices London

Various Voices London
Is a Charity created in 2006 by 3 London-based long-established LGBT choirs with a network of over 300 committed musicians, who are all volunteers: the London Gay Men’s Chorus the largest gay male voice choir in Europe and set up in 1992; the Pink Singers, London’s oldest lesbian and gay community choir launched in 1983; and Diversity, a lesbian and gay chamber choir formed in 1992.

Its aim is to collaborate with a major professional cultural institutions and organisations like the Southbank Centre and the Cultural Olympiad of the London 2012 Games. It will provide a template for the amateur arts sector on how it can work successfully with the professional arts community on joint projects that use the strengths of both to promote artistic excellence

Singing together is a fantastic joyful communal experience and Various Voice London has already been involved in a series of successful events EuroPride Sings 2006 at the Southbank Centre, London Sings at the National Portrait Gallery and is currently working with the International Gay & Lesbian Football Association on the cultural events for the World Championship to be hosted in London in August 2008.

Various Voices London is organising "Various Voices London 2009", a festival of song and singing for amateur lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender choirs from the UK and Europe at Southbank Centre in May 2009. This international event is endorsed by the Mayor of London and Visit London, the official visitor organisation for London.

The Various Voices festival has a proud history of over 20 years of uniting LGBT people across Europe to sing together, for each other and for a wider public. 2009 will be the first time London has hosted the Festival since 1989 and the first time that the voluntary management committee will collaborate with a major professional cultural institution (the Southbank Centre) to deliver it.

The Festival will take place from 1 – 4 May 2009 and will take over the entire Centre – indoors and outdoors, across all buildings. London will easily exceed the 2,000 singers who attended the last Festival in Paris in 2005, with particular emphasis on increasing the number of UK choirs. The Musical Director is currently MD of the NYC Gay Men’s Chorus: Charlie Beale, he is proposing a varied programme of workshops and singing opportunities to allow participants to explore their vocal abilities within and between choirs. Each choir will have the opportunity to perform in one of the Centre’s 3 concert spaces, and SBC will programme and promote complementary musical activities to enhance the event for participants and bring a greater audience to hear excellent non-professional singing.

The Festival will enable SBC to kick-start an evaluation of how a short high-impact event can inspire non-professional singers, over and above the LGBT community, to participate in the creation and enjoyment of music on a long-term basis. The partners will work with groups such as Making Music as well as SBC’s own Voicelab to ensure that those who are motivated by the Festival have opportunities to continue singing. The Festival will show SBC how it can collaborate with the amateur arts sector to support its mission to be an innovative cultural enterprise filled with year-round activity, inside and out. Various Voices will result in a blueprint for amateur/professional collaborations – where they are equal partners in management and delivery.

The Festival will be the first time that LGBT choirs from across the country will come together to make music and celebrate singing. It will use the choral tradition of a shared artistic endeavour to affirm LGBT identify and to enthuse the diverse audience that will be attracted to such a significant cultural event.

It is a triumph for London to have bid successfully to stage the Festival and it will be a model of best practice for Europe. There will be a large contingent of European choirs who will benefit from not only performing but the training and workshop elements: a professional approach for amateur musicians.

The Artistic Director will have the critical function of devising an inspirational variety of concerts, workshops and activities to appeal both to participants and the general public. He will have to juggle the repertoires and abilities of the 60 choirs taking part to come up with a cohesive performance programme. He needs both an artistic vision and an understanding of what makes an exceptional participatory and accessible experience.

Various Voices London 2009...
...will be a proud and vibrant CELEBRATION of the full diversity of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans (LGBT) choral singing across Europe and the world

...will actively facilitate INTERACTION within and between choruses and their members as well as the public through singing and socialising

...will enable every member and every chorus to GROW, by providing access to skills, information and advice for singers, conductors and managers

Various Voices London 2009 will be the largest public happening at the SBC since the opening weekend of the refurbished RFH in June 2007 and will act as a ‘dry run’ for cultural events for the 2012 Olympics – for the Centre itself, for amateur practitioners, for London and for the country. The Festival will be a viable example of bold, creative action that that excites and galvanises. It will offer artistic quality and artistic development for the participants and the audience – and will bring many people to the centre of the city to celebrate singing and London.