Love Music creates participatory projects and new music through which young people and communities can come together with musicians in a professional setting and participate in inspirational music making. There are 2 clear strands to Love Music’s work- Community and Young People, and under each strand Love Music offers a number of projects and opportunities for people to participate.
Love Singing
See also: Lifelong Learning, Participatory, Creative Learning, Choral, Ensemble, Online.
Love Singing is a community singing initiative supported by The National Lottery through Creative Scotland. It celebrates the resilience of choirs and their communities and its aim is to support and promote creative, healthy singing communities across Scotland.
Following five song commissions for community choirs in 2021, the next step in the Love Singing programme is to research how the community singing sector can best support itself and what external resources it needs to thrive in a post-pandemic world.
Love Singing have developed a sector-led vision and framework for a national community singing support plan from song leaders’ feedback.
You can read and review this sector support plan here.
To help support the plan you can also fill in the mapping survey.
FREE resources for choir & song leaders are also available. The Comfort Of Voices Songbook and library of video warm ups are available for you to use with your choirs.
https://sing.lovemusic.org.uk/resources/
Full details of Love singing including future events can be found by directly following the link below.
Love Music Community Choir
See also: Lifelong Learning, Participatory, Creative Learning, Choral, Ensemble, Online.
The Love Music Community Choir is supported by the City of Edinburgh Council and is based at Usher Hall. It is the largest community choir in the UK, with a focus on participation, and a diverse repertoire that ‘can include anything from Mozart to Joy Division’, with its eclectic music choices often following the Usher Hall’s programme. The choir is ambitious, courageous and fun; led by Love Music’s Artistic Director Stephen Deazley, the choir regularly works with internationally acclaimed musicians, and has Scottish jazz legend Dave Milligan as its resident pianist.
In 2021, the choir developed a hybrid model with some of the choir singing in the Usher Hall and a live broadcast to Zoom and YouTube for those singing at home, with vocal lines supported by professional singers.
Love Music Junior Choir
See also: Primary, Secondary, Participatory, Choral, Ensemble, Creative Learning.
Love Music’s Junior Choir is for young people aged 8-12. Like the Community Choir, the Junior choir performs at Usher Hall. It is a fun, adventurous and inclusive choir, that can accommodate up to 200 children from across Edinburgh, on a pay what you can afford basis.
Junior Choir sings a diverse range of music from across the world in different languages, especially arranged by its inspirational choir leaders, Darla Eno and Sally Jaquet, supported by renowned educationalist Stephen Deazley, and accompanied by jazz legend Dave Milligan.
This School’s Got Soul
See also: Primary, Choral, Ensemble, Performance, Participatory.
This School’s Got Soul is a 75-minute high energy, celebratory singing workshop with professional song leader, live band and singers, specially designed for P5-P7 classes. The workshop aims to broaden musical horizons and inspire musical curiosity, exploring classics such as Sister Sledge’s We Are Family, Bobby Hebb’s Sunny and Bill Withers Lovely Day. This School’s Got Soul can be delivered as a learning and participation workshop in partnership with local education and music services, festivals, concert halls, and professional promoters. It can be performed on large stages both indoor and outdoor. Follow the link below to contact Love Music about presenting This School’s Got Soul for your school, area, or in your venue or festival.
On This, A Winter’s Night
See also: Primary, Choral, Ensemble, Performance, Participatory.
On This, A Winter’s Night is a creative performance project for upper primary schools conceived as a celebration of song, verse, music and light to mark the turning of the year and the transformation of the autumn season into the magic of winter. It brings together songs from around the world from a rich mix of genres alongside original creative writing and handmade lanterns made by the participants which light up the stage of the end of project performance. The number of singers and schools involved depends on the size of the venue for the final event. Following a CPD session with all teachers involved, Love Music delivers 4 or 5 singing workshops for each school class or choir. Class teachers and choir leaders continue the learning in between visits, and for the final workshop singers are joined by guest musicians who sing alongside the choirs in the performance event with a professional band. Learning is supported with both written and audio resources, meaning that teachers don’t need to be able to accompany their groups.
Punkit
See also: Primary, Secondary, Choral, Ensemble, Performance, Participatory.
Punkit is an adventurous 20-minute participative music work for massed percussion. Participants are ideally aged 11-14, in transition between primary and secondary school. The piece is entirely accessible; it does not rely on core instrumental skills or previous experience, but teaches rhythm and provides high quality moments of musical inspiration. Punkit can be delivered as a learning and participation project in partnership with festivals, concert halls, local education services and music services and professional promoters. The work can be performed on large stages both indoor and outdoor, and there are two performing versions to suit venue sizes, settings and budgets. Punkit is supported by the bespoke audio and video teaching resources you can find on its website, www.punkit.lovemusic.org.uk, as well as through CPD sessions for participating teachers and by workshops delivered by the Love Music creative team and band. Final performances can also involve massed audience participation. To talk to Love Music about presenting Punkit in your area, venue, schools or festival, please contact Love Music below.