Over 70 young singers from Richard Taunton Sixth Form College, Redbridge Community School and St Annes Catholic School were brought together by Southampton Music Hub to perform as part of a spectacular gala to celebrate the reopening of Mayflower Theatre. Performing as part of a spectacular celebration that included performances from the theatre’s memorable musical history, and it’s exciting upcoming programme, the singers filled the newly refurbished auditorium with the sound of a capella African singing: including songs from Southampton Music Hub’s Big African Sing event.

As pupils, teachers and families across the city enjoy the final week of the academic year, Southampton Music Hub is celebrating a record-breaking year of life-changing music: a year that includes over 22,000 people taking part in 250,000 inspirational hours of music in workshops, events and performances from the Stadium Tour, Everybody Sing and City Ensembles.

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Matt Brombley, Projects and Partnerships Manager for Southampton Music Hub, says:
"It's been another incredible year for music in Southampton. The hub's achievements are only possible thanks to all the schools, staff, partners and families across the city that share the belief that making music makes lives better, and work together to share that life-changing power of music with every child."

Released last week, ‘World Music Day’ (by Jo Downs), is a new free song in the Everybody Sing Song Bank to help celebrate World Music day on Thursday 21 June. Singers of all ages can have fun learning this exciting new song!

Also in the song bank is last months song and podcast themed around endangered species, with lots of great ideas for animal themed ways to warm up your voice.

To celebrate summer, Sound Pop Academy will be running a series of singing workshops this August. Running from 13–15 August 2018, at Oasis Academy in Lord’s Hill there is a three day workshop programme for 7–16 year old singers.

Sound Pop Academy focuses on a contemporary approach to music learning, allowing young people to reach their full potential in harmony singing, vocal skill and movement.

Mike Evans from Sound Pop Academy says:
"We’ve been busy planning an immersive programme of fun, inclusive workshops where participants will be challenged into learning a number of current pop songs along with choreography and performance skills which will then be showcased to family and friends. Come and graduate with us this summer! Places are strictly limited."

Workshops cost £90 for a three day programme.

On Thursday 28 June, thanks to support from the Southampton Schools Music Association (SSMA), Southampton Music Hub is bringing nearly 800 young singers together at Central Hall for a super-sized African music celebration. Led by by professional workshop leader Rosie Bergonzi, this singing celebration will be the culmination of months of free workshops and rehearsals at schools across the city.

The project is supported by a brand new resource pack — including vocal and percussion arrangements of nine traditional African songs — which is freely available as part of the resources available from the Southampton Music Hub website.

Nia Collins, Interim Manager at Southampton Music Hub, says
“Southampton Music Hub is delighted to be working with the SSMA on this project. Both the hub and SSMA have a fantastic track record for excellence in vocal work with schools in Southampton and we are excited to work together to showcase this in a celebration event for the Big African Sing. The hub team have worked hard to develop a brilliant and flexible set of new resources which are suitable for all ages and abilities; for use both in and out of the classroom.”

Another brand new, free song has been added to the Everybody Sing Song Bank this month.

‘St George’s Day Blues’, written by Jo Downs, celebrates St George’s Day and will let children of all ages have fun learning about the story of St George through a catchy call and response blues song. Alongside the song, there is another podcast episode with ideas for dragon themed vocal warm ups.

The free song in this month's Everybody Sing Song Bank is a celebration of the magical worlds that can be explored through reading. With shoutouts to some of the world's great children's authors, and lyrics that encourage getting lost in a good book, everyone can join in with this exciting new song written by Jo Downs.

This month's free song in the Everybody Sing Song Bank celebrates pancake day with a "Flip It!" rap. A new podcast episode also gives tips and tricks on how to get the most out of the song, and includes a warm up of the week and a simple, silly starter to help get the best out of young voices. The song also includes getting vocalists doing beatboxing, with the podcast giving an easy to follow guide on how to get started with this exciting vocal technique.

Southampton Music Hub is now offering Musical Theatre singing workshops in partnership with Perform For Life, a performing arts education organisation based in the South / South West. In group workshops participants will sing popular Musical Theatre songs, learning singing technique, harmony singing and other elements of Musical Theatre, including movement and acting through song.

Katrina Simon, founder of Perform for Life, says:
"Perform For Life creates opportunities for children and young people in the city to take part in Musical Theatre tuition in a group setting, making it an affordable way for participants to learn new songs, pick up new skills and meet like-minded friends. Musical Theatre is a hugely popular genre and Perform For Life uses the storytelling nature of the genre to give children and young people performance skills they can use both on and off the stage." 

Workshops will be at Regents Park Community College, every other Tuesday after school. 

This month's new song in the Everybody Sing Song Bank, written by Jo Downs, celebrates creativity in music, art, science and more. With a fun and catchy tune for everybody to enjoy, singing this song is a great way to help young singers focus on pronouncing some tricky words clearly. This weeks podcast includes a bonus episode to help you get creative with some percussion ideas.

A message from Matt, Nia and Zoe, Southampton Music Hub Managers:

The start of the new school year in 2017 has seen some incredible musical moments in Southampton:

• 1,500 new pupils took their first music steps in First Access
• 5,000 children learning music every week
• over 6,600 children taking part in an inspiring musical experience

As we share some of our highlights from the start of this year, we also look forward to 2018, working with schools, partners and families to bring life-changing music to every child in our city.

This Christmas, Southampton Music Hub has worked closely with two choirs — University of Southampton Voices and Southampton Choral Society — to put together two concerts celebrating choral excellence in Southampton.

The Bells of Paradise:

The first concert, The Bells of Paradise, took place at Swaythling Methodist Church on Friday 15th December. 

University of Southampton Voices — a 50 strong community choir based at the University of Southampton — were lead by their charismatic director, Harvey Brough, who also composed and arranged the music performed. Choirs from Swaythling Primary School and Cantell School worked with vocal workshop leaders from Southampton Music Hub in the run up to the event.

Harvey Brough, University of Southampton Voices Director, says:
“The young singers sang really well, I felt they really learned something about performing throughout the process and in the concert itself. I could feel the collective will to make it as good as possible and that’s such a valuable thing to tap into.”

Gemma Dyne, Head of Music at Cantell School, says:
“We had a really good time and it was very beneficial for all of the students taking part.”

Singers from St Annes rehearsing for their performance at Central Hall

Singers from Springhil school rehearsing for their performance at Central Hall

Ceremony of Carols

The second concert, at Central Hall on Saturday 16th December, featured Southampton Choral Society, alongside choirs from Springhill and St Anne’s Catholic Schools, in a magical performance of Britten’s Ceremony of Carols.

Workshop leaders from Southampton Music Hub worked with the schools to learn and rehearse the material which was brought together with harp accompaniment on the day, by conductor Graham Kidd. The demanding but beautiful music of Britten made a dramatic entrance processing in and out of the auditorium for the opening and closing plain chant. 

Diana Barnes, General Secretary of Southampton Choral Society, says:
“It was lovely to hear their young voices singing with enthusiasm and commitment, and we thoroughly enjoyed having them sing with us. We hope that we can have the opportunity again some time!”

Jenni McWilliams, Music Teacher at Springhill, says:
“This was an amazing opportunity for our pupils, we would definitely welcome working together again... they absolutely loved the whole experience.”

Gemma Nicholls, St Anne’s
“This was a wonderful event and a brilliant chance for the students to sing alongside singers from Springhill and Southampton Choral Society. The students all really enjoyed it.”

Nia Collins, Interim Hub Manager at Southampton Music Hub, says:
“Both of these choral concerts were extremely ambitious in their repertoire and as always the children and young people of Southampton schools were able to rise to the challenge admirably with some astonishing results! We have enjoyed working closely with schools, the university and community choirs who have all been extremely supportive in helping to bring these exciting celebration events together.”

This Spring, Southampton Music Hub presents a brand new set of songs that will help the youngest children in school to explore the world around them through singing. The fun and simple songs explore themes from brushing you teeth and washing your hands, through to family and holidays. 

The free song book will be sent to every Reception class in the city, and will be supported with free singing workshops from Southampton Music Hub's experienced early years singing tutors. 

Nia Collins, Southampton Music Hub Manager and Vocal Strategy Leader, says:
"We are delighted to be able to offer a set of songs written for the EYFS framework that help children in Reception classes use music to explore their relationship to the home environment. These free songs will be accompanied by free workshops in schools which will help children enjoy singing from the very beginning of their schools lives. The songs are simple and catchy, and we hope that children will take these songs home so that parents can singalong too."

On Friday 15 December 2017, University of Southampton Voices and Southampton Music Hub will present The Bells of Paradise: a delightful collection of carols and Christmas songs from around the world, and through the ages, arranged by Harvey Brough, Turner Sims Professor of Music.

Southampton University Voices — a 60 strong choir made up from staff members and students from the University of Southampton — will come together with children’s choirs from Swaythling Primary and Cantell School, international vocalist Clara Sanabras and James Murray on piano.

The performance takes place at Swaything Methodist Hall, starting at 7.30pm.

Southampton Music Hub Manager and Vocal Strategy Lead, Nia Collins, says:
"This has been a great opportunity to showcase some of Harvey's fantastically festive arrangements and for the children involved to sing some really interesting and different repertoire. It has also been a great way for the hub to deliver some transition work between primary and secondary schools and the university, helping to strengthen those links in our community via music"

This month's new song in the Everybody Sing Song Bank is a special festive edition written by Jo Downs. With lyrics which play on the idea of a Christmas list jam packed with presents, this song encourages young singers to think about those less fortunate than themselves at a time of year when it can be so easy to only think about their own wishes. There are three fun, optional harmonies to accompany the main tune, with different levels for all abilities.

This month's free song from the Everybody Sing Song Bank is a medley of nursery rhymes — perfect for singing with young children in school.

With so many familiar tunes, the song is also an ideal confidence booster for new teachers and music leaders who may be feeling unsure about leading singing activities. Alongside tips on how to sing the song, the podcast episode this week also introduces a brand new warm up and simple, silly starter that can be used in school and at home to build new singing skills.

Photo by Daily Echo

On Saturday, Southampton Music Hub's Groove Merchant and Ukulele groups were joined by Delicious Sounds Choir, Sing Out Choir, Highfield Singing Club, Soton Voce and hundreds of community singers, musicians and audience members to take part in a celebration of Southampton's musical and cultural diversity. The event, which took part in Guildhall Square as part of the Music in the City Festival, saw hundreds joining in with 'Singing in the City': a specially commissioned song which was performed by youth and community choirs from across the city.

Nia Collins, who led the choirs on the day, says:
"This was an incredible event which brought together musicians, singers and audiences from across Southampton to celebrate the rich musical diversity that makes our city such an incredible place to live in together."

You can view photographs of the event on the Daily Echo website, and a report on Music in the city will be featured on South Today this week.

Southampton Music Hub will be hosting music in Guildhall Square this Saturday afternoon as part of the Music in the City festival. Joined by musicians from the community, the programme for the afternoon will be:

• 1–1.30pm: Ukulele Groups
• 1.30–2pm: Groove Merchant
• 2.30–3pm: Singing in the City with Sing Out, Delicious Sounds, Soton Voces and community singers
• 3–3.30pm: Groove Merchant

Any young singers who took part in workshops for Singing in the City are warmly invited to join the performance at 2.30pm, and should meet in Guildhall square, with a parent or guardian to accompany them, from 2.15pm.

Released today, the next free song in the Everybody Sing Song Bank is the perfect way to launch into Space Week, which starts on Wednesday 4 October 2017. 

As part of Southampton Music Hub's ongoing support for singing in schools, the song is accompanied by a short, but jam packed singing podcast for teachers, with each episode bursting full of great ideas to get the whole school singing together, having fun and feeling happier and healthier through music. There is even a bonus podcast episode this week, with percussion ideas to play along with the song.

In celebration of Roald Dahl Day, Southampton Music Hub has released the first song from the Everybody Sing Song Bank: ‘Roald Dahl Day Song’.

As one of the new free song added to the Everybody Sing Song Bank each month, ‘Roald Dahl Day Song’ is accompanied by a short, but jam packed packed singing podcast for teachers, with each episode bursting full of great ideas to get the whole school singing together, having fun and feeling happier and healthier through music.