“About 100,000 singers—most of them children—from 640 choirs as far afield as Melbourne and California will sing Benjamin Britten’s Friday Afternoons to mark the composer’s 100th birthday today, turning the event into one of the largest global community singing projects ever attempted,” writes Imogen Tilden in Friday’s (11/22) Guardian (London). “Jonathan Reekie, chief executive of Aldeburgh Music, which organises the Aldeburgh festival that Britten co-founded in 1948, said initial plans involved getting children in Suffolk and Norfolk to sing the songs. The performance centre set up a website and produced teacher packs and scores to encourage schools to take part…. ‘It’s caught fire in a way we’d never have imagined,” said Reekie.… The first event will be in Australia, at 4am GMT, the final in Santa Monica, California, at 10pm GMT. Nine performances will be livestreamed … with participants around the globe uploading video footage and photos…. The largest group will be at Bristol’s Colston Hall, where 1,913 children from Bournemouth Symphony Youth Chorus and 39 schools from the south west will join the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and conductor Kirill Karabits.” The Guardian is streaming live video today here.
Posted November 22, 2013
