(Church Times) Children’s choirs are being revitalised in the UK

Further, they run a programme for local schools, Birmingham Choral Education Partnership, which means that their music team goes into schools to run weekly choral workshops, learning music from the pupils’ own heritage as well as traditional Western classical composers. They also put on instrument workshops: paid work that helps to bring further capacity, resource, and capability to the overall department.

“Once you give children the opportunity of engaging with choral music, and show them the power of it, they simply love it. The notion that children from my community aren’t interested in, or don’t enjoy, choral music, is nonsense, absolute nonsense; and the parents just can’t do enough to help, too,” Mr Duncan-Banerjee says.

He is exultant that, having sung William Mathias’s “Sir Christèmas”, the choristers just can’t help bursting into “Nowell, nowell” at the slightest opportunity. “That’s when it gets really exciting.”

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Posted in Children, Church of England, England / UK, Liturgy, Music, Worship, Parish Ministry, Religion & Culture