Programme
The County of Song programme is establishing a group of cultural and singing group partners to coordinate high quality vocal concerts, festivals, training and workshop opportunities across the county.
Presented as a programme for 2024 we aim to publicise the breadth of the county’s singing offer and offer workshops to support for choirs and singing groups across Lancashire in areas like accessing funding and marketing their work.
Spring 2024 – Rivers Running
The County of Song programme bursts in to spring with a focus on exciting new work for voices featuring Lancashire choirs, Bay Singers and Lancaster Millennium Choir, and leading award winning LGBTQ+ low voice choir, The Sunday Boys. This is work that draws on the heritage and landscape of the county, and explores new ways of presenting community voices.
The River Runs
3:30- 5:30pm Saturday 24 February
St John the Evangelist’s Church, 49 North Rd, Lancaster, LA1 1NS
Entry: Free
The River Runs turns St. John the Evangelista’s Church into a space flowing with voices – live and recorded – to reflect the history, geography and memories of the Mill Race area of Lancaster and songs that have been contained in it.
Join Musical Director Loz Kaye, Morecambe’s Bay Singers, soloist, Emma Williams and a “River Runs” choir developed through workshops for a special sound celebration. “The River Runs” is the first public event as part of the year long celebration of Lancashire grassroots singing “County of Song”.
The event is an ongoing installation lasting two hours, and you are free to come and go as you please between 3.30pm-5.30pm. The sequence will last 30 minutes and be repeated four times during this time period. You are invited to move through the space to be close to, or far away from the voices. Doors open at 3.30pm.
The River Runs is part of the three year Mill Race Cultural Programme, run by Lancaster Arts and funded by Historic England.
Find out more about the Morecambe Bay Singers.
Find out more about the Mill Race Cultural Programme.
From the Liminal Space & A Choral Tapestry
A new piece by Ewan Anderson performed by Lancaster Millennium Choir
7.30pm Saturday 23 March 2024
The Priory, Lancaster, LA1 1YZ
Entry: Pay what you can. £10 suggested.
Liminal, adj. – Characterised by being on a boundary or threshold, esp. by being transitional or intermediate between two states, situations, etc.
Join us at Lancaster Priory for a choral piece in six parts exploring how making a few small changes can yield significantly different results. In each part a different musical idea is sung, repeated, varied, developed and combined. There are no stories being told. There is no narrative structure or political point being made. In this increasingly complex world, join the Lancaster Millennium Choir to stop and reflect for a while in a liminal moment before pushing through to the next change.
Find out more about the Lancaster Millennium Choir.
Voices of the Polar Night – The Sunday Boys at The Whitaker
5 performances: 11:15am, 12:15pm, 1:15pm, 2:15pm, 3:15pm Sunday 24 March.
The Whitaker Museum and Art Gallery, Haslingden Road, Rossendale, Lancashire, BB4 6RE.
Entry: Tickets £8. Book here.
The Sunday Boys Choir return to The Whitaker with their ground breaking new choral experience, Voices of the Polar Night.
In this 30 minute immersive experience, you’ll be plunged into darkness and enwrapped in the voices of a low-voiced LGBTQ+ choir, journeying from darkness to light through the music of those who experience polar night.
Find out more about The Sunday Boys
Lancashire Choir Of The Year 2024
Entry Deadline: 12 Noon Tuesday 16 July 2024.
Final: Wednesday 29 November 2024
The Great Hall, Lancaster University, Lancaster. LA1 4YW
The hunt is on again this year to find the best community choirs in Lancashire and your group could be one of them!
Entry is free and open to any community choir in the Lancashire County Council, Blackburn with Darwen Council and Blackpool Council areas.
Six shortlisted choirs will be invited to perform at a celebration concert in November.
Last year, after much anticipation, Nelson Civic Ladies Choir were named the winners for 2023 at a celebration concert at Lancaster University’s Great Hall on Wednesday 29 November. The final of the second annual Lancashire Choir of the Year competition saw spellbinding performances by some of the best singers from across the county. Each of the six finalists performed two show-stopping numbers back-to-back.
Find out more about how to enter Lancashire Choir of The Year 2024.
Watch last year’s finalists concert.
Spring Concert – Gloria! – Preston Orpheus Choir
7pm Saturday 13 April 2024.
St Michael and All Angels Church, Ashton, PR 1AJ.
Entry: Adults £13. Under 18s £5. Book tickets online here or pay on the door.
A chance to hear a Lancashire ensemble exploring some wonderful music. Preston’s Orpheus Choir presents a vibrant spring concert, directed by Dan Adams and featuring soloists Connor Cobb and Aimee Maria Harris. The programme includes, by turns, the solemn and mischievously exuberant ‘Gloria’ by Poulenc, ‘Cantique de Jean Racine’ by Faure, and Dvorak’s ‘Te Deum’.
Find out more about Preston Orpheus Choir
Connecting Voices- Vocalise Junior Choir, Singing for the Brain Choir Alzheimer’s Society, Blackburn People’s Choir.
Sunday 19 May 2.30pm.
Trinity United Reform Church, Brownhill Road, Blackburn, BB1 9QY.
Tickets: Pay what you decide on the door.
Join 3 choirs for an afternoon of intergenerational singing in aid of Dementia Awareness Week. All this and a raffle too!
Song and Stone
Save the Date: 9 June 2024.
Stubbylee and Moorlands Park, Stubbylee Lane, Bacup, Rossendale, Lancahire.
County of Song will be working with Horse and Bamboo to bring you ‘Song and Stone’, music reflecting the landscape of Rossendale as part of an event on 9 June in Stubbylee Park in Bacup. This will feature local choirs and a workshop with Loz Kaye looking at song based on the legends of the White Stag of the Rossendale Valley.
Poulton-le-Fylde Spot on Festival
10.30am – 4pm Friday 14 to 16 June 2024
Poulton-le-Fylde Community Hall, 3 Vicarage Road, Poulton-le-Fylde, Lancashire, FY6 7BE and Poulton Market Square, Poulton-le-Fylde, Lancashire, FY6 7AP.
Entry: Free.
Spot On Festival is a jam-packed weekend of live performances across Poulton Town Centre. County of Song will be working with Poulton-le-Fylde Community Hall and Culturapedia to bring you a community stage on Saturday 15 June 2024.
This will feature, amongst others, Poulton People’s Choir, The Encore Singers and Lancashire Choir of the Year finalists, The Capricorn Singers.
There will be much else throughout the weekend, including a Sound of Music workshop!
Keep an eye out here for details or on Spot on Lancashire events.