Saturday

We're delighted to welcome Latvian composer Ēriks Ešenvalds as our featured composer. At the forefront of contemporary choral composing, he has won multiple awards, had his music performed at numerous international festivals, and has been frequently featured on recordings. Stars was recently performed at the BBC Proms on its Choral Day by the joint forces of The King's Singers and VOCES8, and his music is loved by professional and amateur choirs alike. This is an unmissable opportunity to hear Ēriks talking about some of his choral music which is particularly suited to amateur choirs, as well as singing some of it and chatting with him.

In this session Jenny Trattles and Charles MacDougall will help you recognise the skills you can bring to the singers of all ages that you work with, by exploring with repertoire in a slightly different way. We'll unpack three pieces that are ideal for choral performance, but also through which you are able to explore the fundamentals of musicianship. You'll leave with activities that you can immediately put into practice in your choir.

In this first repertoire discovery session, discover lots of new music for your school or youth choir, including changing voices. Joanna Tomlinson will lead you through highlights, and you can explore the full range on our website.

Conducting instrumentalists as well as your singers can be a daunting prospect, however experienced you are. BBC Symphony Chorus Director Neil Ferris leads a practical session on technique and preparation for conducting your choir with an orchestra. By way of working with three participants, the advice and attention will be for all delegates including tips on score preparation, rehearsal planning and timing, technical advice, troubleshooting and keeping calm! Repertoire includes Fauré's Requiem, Mendelssohn's Elijah and Haydn's Creation - attend as a participant or an observer.

In the second of our repertoire discovery sessions, discover new sacred and secular music for adult community choirs singing mainly in one or two parts. You'll be able to sing highlights with Sarah, and you can explore the full range on our website.

This practical session shows how you can build a lesson from a song, using vocal work to teach children musicianship skills that will help them develop their aural skills, performing and composing in line with the Music National Curriculum. Join Rebecca Berkley, the children of Universal Voices, and Music Education students from the University of Reading as they demonstrate music teaching for KS2 children, starting with chanting and singing as the first instrument that all children can access, and then progressing with movement work to develop rhythmic understanding, listening work with analytical talking about music, and composing with voices and classroom instruments. We will also discuss how to develop these initial ideas into a medium term scheme of work. The session will use songs from the Sing for Pleasure Junior Song pack.

How can we get the best possible sound out of our singers and how do we make sure they are always in tune, with great diction, phrasing and dynamics? In this practical session we will consider how vocal technique including breath flow, vowel placement and registration can help choir with all these elements. We will apply these technical ideas to various musical extracts in order to put it straight into practise. We will also deal with common issues that arise for each voice type to ensure all voice parts enjoy a feeling of freedom and ease within their own vocal colour.

Another Convention favourite, our composers' forum is a unique gathering of composers, each with their own distinctive sound. Find out their different working methods which bring about their success and chat with them about their current projects. This year's panel, chaired by abcd Trustee Leslie East, includes Russell Hepplewhite and our featured composer Ēriks Ešenvalds.

This session explores ideas and challenges in making singing and movement work accessible and inclusive to all children in the primary classroom. Children with special needs, whether identified or not, can find singing and movement work challenging in the classroom especially when it involves working socially with other children and needs movement fluency that they may not have fully mastered. Join Rebecca Berkley and Music Education students from the University of Reading for a practical, discursive session exploring our on-going work into finding ways to make our work in choral education more inclusive whilst still providing a high quality music education to all children.

Getting away from notes on a page to creating music in the moment is a brilliant way to get your singers more engaged, present to the musical process and empowered as musicians in their own right. But it can also be scary! In this session Leanne will explore making improvisation accessible for choirs (and choir leaders!), with exercises and tools for getting singers out of their comfort zones into creative music making. The session will include work with solfa and vocal painting (VOPA), as well as musical games and song frames for improvisation. No experience necessary!

In the third of our repertoire discovery sessions, discover new sacred and secular music for adult choirs singing in three or more parts. You'll be able to sing highlights with Neil, and you can explore the full range on our website.

Building on the success of the Breaking the Singing Barrier resource by Charles MacDougall, Jenny Trattles and the ISM Trust, this session will provide practical guidance and inspiration for choral leaders committed to inclusive practice. Charles and Jenny will introduce a range of repertoire and innovative strategies designed to remove barriers that may arise when leading choirs, particularly those working with SEND, mainstream groups, or choirs with diverse needs and experiences. Participants will come away with a toolkit of engaging activities and an adaptable repertoire that encourages the expression of all voices, including the most reluctant or anxious singers, in a supportive and welcoming environment. This session is ideal for those looking to create a more inclusive and accessible choral experience for singers of all ages and abilities.

Enjoy a sociable hot buffet supper with a glass of wine, soft drink or beer included. (Please note this needs to be booked separately to your Convention place).