Programme for Saturday

Join internationally established singer and choir director Emily Dickens to discover how to use your body to unlock your full vocal potential. Explore what makes your own voice feel comfortable, free, full and flexible, and learn how to model healthy and expressive singing for the choirs you lead. Whether you’re singing yourself or inspiring others, this is about enjoying your voice and singing well at every stage of life.

Ready to bring contemporary pop music to your choir without sacrificing technique or quality? Join Matthew Roughley, founder and director of Manchester Vocal Ensemble, as he shares his ideas on the essential tools to make pop arrangements sound vibrant, polished and authentic. Discover practical vocal techniques, stylistic nuances, and repertoire tips that turn pop arrangements into stand-out pop performances.

Join Steinberg’s choral specialist Daniel Spreadbury for an introduction to the music notation and composition software, Dorico, and how it can be used to produce beautiful and functional choral scores more quickly than other tools. Whether you are new to Dorico, or have been producing choral music in scoring software for years, you’ll get useful hints and tips, and have a chance to ask questions directly to the software’s developers.

Flora and Fauna. Join Universal Voices children’s choir for playground songs and games on the theme of animals and the natural world. All delegates are welcome to join in with the activities for a lunch time wake and shake.

Nicholas Bannan shares his pedagogical method for developing blend, tuning and harmonic understanding. Harmony Signing is a method for developing musical experience that supports instinctive musicality and acute listening skills. It employs gestures to convey musical relationships that enrich understanding and can be used creatively. Its development of methods derived from Kodály has proved effective in both the classroom and rehearsal studio.

In the first of our repertoire discovery sessions, discover new secular music for SATB choirs. You'll be able to sing highlights with Mark, and you can explore the full range on our website. Bring your own tablet or i-Pad if possible to get the most out of the session.

*EDUCATION* In this session, Susan Hollingworth (Vice-President of the Scunthorpe Co-operative Junior Choir and of abcd) and Dr Rebecca Berkley (Associate Professor in Music Education & Director of Universal Voices, Reading University’s children’s choir) will share their ideas for best practice when working with young singers. This session will explore teaching strategies, repertoire selection, how to plan and pace your rehearsals, managing vocal health including ideas for warm-ups and cool downs; as well as the opportunity for Q&A. We’re also delighted that Universal Voices will be attending the session as our guest children’s choir; this is a unique opportunity to see Rebecca and Sue working with young singers in person.

Come and sing together a selection of James’ vocal explorations, written to bring singers of all kinds into new experiences and harmonic landscapes. These warm ups have taken the Internet by storm, offering a joyful approach to musicmaking, whilst deepening and strengthening key elements of ear training. As a non-binary human, part of James’ journey here will be sharing and exploring different, fluid and more neutral understandings of voice parts to create a sense of freedom and inclusivity for singers of all different kinds.

In the first of our repertoire discovery sessions, discover new sacred music for SATB choirs. You'll be able to sing highlights with Nick, and you can explore the full range on our website. Bring your own tablet or i-Pad if possible to get the most out of the session.

*EDUCATION* We’re delighted to partner with Dr Rebecca Berkley and her choir, Universal Voices, to offer a masterclass session for conductors working with young singers, led by Dr Rebecca Berkley and Suzzie Vango. Universal Voices is a community choir for children in Reading aged 7 – 11 and you can find out more about them on Instagram: universalvoices.readinguni. Up to 3 conductors will direct Universal Voices, teaching the children a song and developing it into a mini performance; observers are also very welcome. Conductors will receive practical feedback about how to teach the song efficiently; using singer-friendly conducting gesture to get the best out of your choirs for enhanced technique, clarity, relevance and communication. If you would like to take part as one of the three volunteer conductors, please contact Elisabeth Brierley (elisabeth.brierley@abcd.org.uk). Selected conductors will be asked to choose two pieces to work on from a shortlist, which will be provided in advance.

Using the text and what it can bring to the music, the writers viewpoint. Meaning, subtext and verbal stresses, the actor’s viewpoint. Setting text, the composer’s viewpoint. Orchestral, operatic and choral conductor Nicholas Cleobury takes settings from some of our greatest composers for this session to dig deeper into meaning and subtext, through the eyes of the writer and the composer.

Have you and your committee ever thought about commissioning a new work for your choir but not been sure where to start? Our Saturday afternoon panel session addresses what to consider to ensure a successful experience for you, your choir – and the composer. We’ll also explore practical ways for choirs to perform new works, for example with reduced instrumentation. abcd Vice-President Brian Kay leads our panel of composers and conductors, who include composers Alan Bullard, Bob Chilcott and Janet Wheeler, and conductor Peter Broadbent.

*EDUCATION* Key Stage 3 singing can often feel like a balancing act between overcoming teenage self-consciousness, navigating changing voices, and maintaining musical momentum. Join Matthew Roughley (Liverpool Philharmonic Youth Choir, Hallé Youth Training Choir, National Youth Choir 9-15) for a high-energy, hands-on session packed with practical tools to turn reluctance into enthusiasm. Explore fast-paced warm ups, accessible repertoire choices, and rehearsal strategies designed to keep 11-14 year olds singing with confidence and joy.

Informal two-course supper with wine (bookable separately to your day or weekend delegate place)