Voices Now in Northern Ireland
The SHM Foundation was delighted to support the Voices Now festival in Northern Ireland in 2013. The Voices Now festival harnesses the recent groundswell of interest in singing in the UK by bringing together professional and community choirs with a diverse range of abilities, genres and backgrounds. The festival started as a groundbreaking four-day event at Camden’s Roundhouse, attended by over 7,000 people in 2011 and 5000 people in 2013. In October 2013, the SHM Foundation supported Voices Now events on 25 and 27 October in Derry, Enniskillen and Omagh in Northern Ireland.
The agenda for Voices Now in Northern Ireland included the following highlights:
New commission and second performance of Eriks Esenvalds’ City Songs featuring six choirs with performance from Imogen Heap and conducted by Stephen Layton
The Holst Singers perform music by Howells, Tavener, Lauridsen and Rachmaninov in St Michael’s Church in Enniskillen
A special ‘Come and Sing’ Spem in Alium workshop led by the Holst Singers in Strule Arts Centre in Omagh
Voices Now in Northern Ireland was produced in association with the City of Derry International Choral Festival and Together One Voice, and was led by its co-Artistic Directors Matthew Swann and Stephen Layton.
