Teaching the world to sing: St Joseph’s RC Primary School on stage at Cosmo Rodewald Concert Hall

The British Council – the UK’s international organisation for cultural relations and educational opportunities – and the Greater Manchester Music Hub today (24 June) announced that two live music events involving nine Greater Manchester primary schools will take place at Cosmo Rodewald Concert Hall on Friday 3 July as part of the British Council’s World Voice programme, which provides training to enable the use of singing in classrooms around the world. The events will mark the end of a week of singing workshops in primary schools across Greater Manchester.

World Voice is a training programme and musical exchange focusing on something that children from all backgrounds and cultures are familiar with, benefit from and enjoy - song. Through teacher training and online resources, the programme is providing a unique way for children to develop their musicality and wider learning as well as opportunities to share, explore and celebrate their local songs and their cultures with other countries in the World Voice global network..

Fourteen partner countries currently make up the World Voice network, including Bangladesh, India, Jordan and Palestine. Ten of these countries will be taking part in the Manchester residency from Monday 29 June to Friday 3 July. “Master Trainers” from each of the ten countries, who have been trained through World Voice, will be paired with primary schools across the nine boroughs that make up the Greater Manchester Music Hub partnership. They will be supported by the UK-based World Voice leadership team and vocal leaders from the Music Services across the Hub for a week of cultural exchange, learning and choral singing.

The primary schools and countries taking part are: 

• St Joseph’s RC Primary School, Heywood - Chile 
• Cale Green Primary, Stockport - India 
• Eatock Primary School, Bolton - Senegal 
• James Brimley Primary, Salford - Ethiopia 
• Micklehurst All Saints CofE Primary, Tameside - Jordan and Palestine
• RL Hughes Primary, Wigan - Bangladesh 
• St Bernadette’s RC Primary School, Bury - Argentina 
• St Matthew’s Chadderton, Oldham - Brazil
• Wellfield Junior School, Trafford - Nepal 

The two events at Cosmo Rodewald Concert Hall at Manchester University will be a celebration of learning and sharing during the week. The assembled primary school pupils will sing a song from their own community and one that they have learnt in the language of their partner country. Each performance will end with a presentation by all the schools of Lin Marsh’s Starlight, commissioned especially for World Voice. The performances will be recorded and available to watch on the World Voice website, and resources developed before and during the week will be available on the World Voice pages within the British Council’s education portal Schools Online.

Cathy Graham, the British Council’s Director Music, said: “The British Council’s founding ethos, to create relationships of trust and understanding between the UK and the rest of the world, lies at the very heart of World Voice and has been a source of inspiration since the inception of the programme in early 2013. As the greater part of our work takes place overseas – we work in over 100 countries - it is an enormous pleasure to be able to share some of that work with the UK. It is a particular privilege to work with the Greater Manchester Music Hub to open up this opportunity for school children in the region. As well as sharing the joy of singing, we hope that the programme will inspire a deeper cultural understanding of each other’s countries in those who take part.

Carolyn Baxendale, the Greater Manchester Music Hub’s Head of Service, said: “The Greater Manchester Music Hub is delighted to be working with the British Council to bring this fantastic opportunity to children across Greater Manchester. It is a rare opportunity for children to work with vocal leaders from so many different countries and to experience their culture at first hand. We are sure that this experience will have a lasting impact on those involved.”

The World Voice Programme began in Senegal and India in 2013 following research and development led by Artistic Director Richard Frostick and Programme Manager Bridget Whyte. Since then the network has grown to include Kenya, Lebanon, Sudan and Colombia, as well as activity across the UK and in the ten countries taking part in Manchester.

The programme has had a hugely successful reception abroad and generous partnership funding from the Rothschild Foundation means that there is now increased support for UK teachers who wish to join the programme, use the online resources (including a World Songbook with songs from all the countries taking part) to support Global Citizenship, with the potential to explore other cultures through partnerships with schools around the globe.