‘Every Voice Festival’ brings live choral music to the streets of Derry

The Every Voice Festival, which is a grassroots community singing festival for singers of all ages and backgrounds, returns for its sixth year with an exciting week of live music-making gets underway today (Sunday, 11th June).

The festival, which runs until Sunday, 18th June, is managed by local arts organisation Allegri and sponsored by Derry City and Strabane District Council, Arts Council NI and the Community Foundation for Northern Ireland, with Maurice Kelly as Creative Director. 

The team are delighted to present an exciting and diverse programme of singing and performance opportunities in events for local singers, representing 40 choirs from Derry and throughout Northern Ireland, designed for and programmed by local singers. 

“After a triumphant return to in-person singing last year we are thrilled to return once again to the streets of the city”, comments Maurice.

“Our passion for the festival is to engage local communities by offering dynamic music experiences for singers in the region under the ethos that every voice matters and we can’t wait to connect with each other, local, national and international participants, and invite local people to be part of the joy of live singing.”

One of the highlights of the week will be the ‘Stand Up and Sing’ Gala Concert taking place in the Guildhall on Saturday, 17th June at 7.30pm. 

It will feature 150 singers from throughout Northern Ireland following a day of shared workshops in which these singers will participate in a Come and Sing style event. Along with the city’s Allegri Ladies’ Choir, the Festival is looking forward to welcoming visiting choirs Caritas, Gathered Voices, Glenlough Community Choir, as well as the Every Voice Festival Chorus who will perform a wonderful selection of songs on the night. 

The massed choirs will then join together for a performance of Sarah Quartel’s ‘Sing My Child’ and ‘Meet Me Here’ from Craig Hella Johnson’s oratorio ‘Considering Matthew Shepard’.

Another highlight for the festival is workshops running throughout the week which will be delivered by guest Joshua Harvey visiting from the US. One of these for 200 young people will explore common sounds to help them understand the basic tools of vocal function which are the building blocks in musical theatre, contemporary, and commercial singing. 

Joshua teaches at the Dobbins Conservatory of Theatre & Dance at South East Missouri State University. He received his M.A. in the Musical Direction of Musical Theatre from The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in 2012 and has played all over the world in churches, theatres, rock, jazz, choral, gospel, symphonic, and performance art settings. 

He is also a supremely gifted pianist and audience members will get to hear him perform as collaborative pianist with the Every Voice Festival Chorus on Saturday 17th June.

Other events on the festival programme include a series of free community concert performances in different venues around the city and Strabane. The TunedIn Project which uses the digital and creative arts, media and music to support people with learning disabilities will perform with their choir, the TunedIn Collective, at popup performances on Wednesday 14th in Sainsbury’s Strand Road and on Friday 16th in Foyleside Shopping Centre at 1pm each day. 

The festival opens today (Sunday, 11th June) with a free inter-denominational event in St Columb’s Church, Chapel Road, at 7.30pm. 

Seven local choirs - First Derry Presbyterian Church, Immaculate Conception Church Folk Group, Inishowen Gospel Choir, Lumen Christi College Folk Group, One Voice Ensemble, St Columb’s Church Choir and St Eugene’s Cathedral Folk Group - will present an inspirational evening of sacred and praise music.

From Monday 11th June  - Wednesday 13th local community choirs will take part in shared concerts in venues including Holywell Trust, the Alley Theatre Strabane and St Columbs Hall. The festival will welcome Danu Women’s Choir, Rosemount Male Voice Choir, Voices of the Foyle, Inishowen Gospel Choir, Omagh Music Society, MellowDEEDS, Springtown Voices, and The Eglintones who are newly established as part of the festival.

There will also be a special collaborative performance with Holy Cross College and Strabane Academy on Tuesday 13th In the Alley Theatre Strabane. 

On Thursday 15th five local schools will come together in an exciting day of music making with Maurice Kelly and Joshua Harvey. Ebrington PS, Lisnagelvin PS, Nazareth House PS, Oakgrove PS and St Oliver Plunkett PS have been preparing works over the past six weeks that have given the young people the opportunity to explore, through song, themes of home, identity and belonging. 

The festival will conclude on Sunday, 18th June at 6.00pm with the uplifting Youth Concert in the Guildhall which brings together visiting Missouri choir St Louis Children’s Choir under the direction of Barbara Berner to perform alongside Allegri's Junior and Youth Choirs.

There will also be a number of pop-up performances at various locations during festival week.

The full programme can be accessed on Allegri’s Facebook and Twitter accounts and at www.allegri.co.uk.

Tickets for the Stand Up and Sing at 7.30pm on Saturday, 17th June and the Every Voice Festival Youth Concert at 6.00pm on Sunday, 18th June are available via Eventbrite.

All other events are free admission and open to the public.