Love Music, producers of Scotland’s largest community choir based at Edinburgh’s Usher Hall, is offering an opportunity for singing groups, community choirs and songwriters across Scotland to join together on a journey of song creation through its new project Love Singing.
Love Singing focuses on collaborative practice by connecting choirs across the country, addressing digital isolation, increasing technical skills and confidence. In teaming up with professional songwriters to commission five brand new songs and a bank of useful and accessible song resources, it will provide information and motivation to help people stay connected in these challenging times.
The 8-month project that runs through to August 2021 will tackle the ongoing challenges of distanced rehearsals and remote learning, sharing the journey as it happens through a series of blogs. Simultaneously creating an online information store of what is learned and sharing the experiences with choir leaders across Scotland.
Stephen Deazley, Love Music’s artistic director says “Choirs up and down the land provide a great service and support to individuals and communities. While 2020 has put up plenty of barriers, it has also pulled some truths into sharp focus, just how valuable these projects are for our own well-being, for friendships, for maintaining healthy and creative communities, and how profoundly they would be missed. …we want to make a positive contribution to this moment, …[and]applaud the efforts of all the choirs and singing groups out there…”
Love Singing, made possible with funding from Creative Scotland, will involve around five new commissions from five of Scotland’s most talented songwriters and five community singing groups who will be integral to creating the new commissions and information resource under the experienced hand of Love Music.
All five community choirs will come together in super-scaled digital zoom sessions to meet each other and the songwriters to share their work. The five finished songs will be crafted and shaped to be inclusive and accessible, and then made available to be shared and sung by choirs everywhere as part of their online open-access resource bank.
During the creative process, support and mentoring will be received from Love Music’s artistic director Stephen Deazley to ensure accessibility and impact for community musicians, and to give support towards choral arrangements if needed.
The new work will be recorded and produced by professional musicians then widely publicised. Composers should be willing to reflect on their writing and their role in the project, have a desire to create music specifically for community singers of all abilities and levels of experience, and be happy to make the rights for the finished piece be freely available for choirs across the country to access.
Information and an application form is available on the Love Singing website.
Irene Brown
Radio Summerhall Arts 