In Conversation with Voices Weaving
Are you looking for ways to creatively connect your community?
Are you interested in the power of song to tell stories?
Join us in conversation with Voices Weaving a co-creation project for community choirs, vocal collectives, and singing groups. Participants collaborate through a series of workshops with a writer and composer to create their own new song and music video, exploring themes of identity and belonging, and revealing the joy of singing together.
“We believe that the music that people sing should reflect their own experiences, and the diversity of the UK today.”
We’ll be joined by Michael Betteridge co-director of Voices Weaving, mandla, writer on Voices Weaving and performer and curator and Ewan, choir leader at Asylum Link Merseyside. Discover their full bios below.
Let's learn more about the project and their methods, to get us thinking and talking about how we can connect our communities through song. There will be opportunities to ask questions.
Michael will be back with us on the 12th March to deliver a singing workshop - putting the ideas we discuss in this session into practice! Sign up here.
Accessibility:
This event will take place on Zoom. Zoom Closed Captions will be available. When you register for this event there will be an opportunity to share with us any access requirements that would support your attendance.
This event is free to attend.
More information on Voices Weaving and the speakers:
What is Voices Weaving?
"Voices Weaving is a song co-creation project for community choirs, vocal collectives, and singing groups . Participants collaborate through a series of workshops with a writer and composer to create their own new song and music video, exploring themes of identity and belonging, and revealing the joy of singing together. We work with a diverse range of people highlighting the width and breadth of community singing in England today. Our latest cohort includes LGBTQ+ people in Blackpool, young people in Rochdale, men who sing in Derby, and those seeking asylum in Bradford and Liverpool, amongst many others. We believe everyone should have a voice in creative processes and Voices Weaving allows for just that. Hundreds of singers, alongside professional creatives, seeing and hearing their experiences and stories in community song."
Michael Betteridge
Described as ‘bold’, ‘colourful’ (The Times), and ‘inventive’ (Financial Times) British-Canadian composer and conductor Michael Betteridge has an eclectic output in which his music draws on the stories of people and places, past and present, animating everything from concert halls and opera stages to slate mines and market squares!
Much of his work is co-created with communities, especially in vocal, theatrical, choral and operatic settings. He has worked with the likes of BBC Philharmonic, Den Jyske Opera (Danish National Opera), Mahogany Opera, Opera North Youth Chorus, and Streetwise Opera. His work has been nominated for two Royal Philharmonic Society Awards in the Impact category (Across the Sky and Opera-tic). He is Artistic Director of The Sunday Boys – Manchester’s low voiced and open access LGBTQ+ choir. He is also co-founder of Voices Weaving – a co-created community choral project for film. He was made an Associate of the Royal Northern College of Music in 2023.
mandla
mandla is a Zimbabwean-born, agender and queer writer, performer, curator, dramaturg and occasional producer. mandla’s work draws on intersectional existence. Often using words as a medium, the artist is heavily concerned with communicating the many sensations associated with being a person.
‘as british as a watermelon’ is the artist’s first solo show. Since its inception in 2020, it has received support from the Greater Manchester Arts and Culture Network, Hope Mill Theatre’s Turn On Fest, The Lowry’s Untitled Residency, Arts Council England, Greater Manchester Independents and Contact Theatre. The live show toured across the UK and to Germany in venues such as Bristol Old Vic with Mayfest, Edinburgh International Festival, Sheffield Crucible, Liverpool Unity Theatre, Theaterhaus G7 in Mannheim and outdoor festival TROPEZ! in Berlin. (Photo credit: apechhya gurung)
Ewan, Asylum Link Merseyside
"The Choir at Asylum Link Merseyside was recently described as an ‘explosion of joy’. Each week we get together on a Thursday afternoon and sing our hearts out, and through the music and the dance, each person makes their own mark in our community. We provide a place to belong, where you can bring parts of your old life and weave its music into the lives of others.
Our Music creates something new from what went before and, in many ways, it reflects people’s journeys to the UK, their past lives, and the lives of the community in which they find themselves today. The Choir has members of many faiths and none, it spans ten different nationalities, eleven if you count Scouse. Its songs encompass Oshiwambo, Swahili, Lingala, French, Spanish, Welsh and snippets of other languages. The Choir alters as people join and leave, and has been singing for over ten years. We are mostly fearless and almost famous."
Who are 64 Million Artists?
You are creative, and you can make change. At 64 Million Artists, we're here to give you the tools to do just that. Whether that's with over 160,000 people getting creative daily throughout January, with leaders tackling climate change and gender inequality, or by inspiring workplaces to courageously support their people. The time to get creative is now.
This event is part of our year round public programme - experiences to connect and resource anyone that wants to make change in their life and the world around them.