Vocalise! Summer Concert - The Swifts of Summer

Vocalise! is The Bach Choir’s community engagement programme in which we share the joy of singing in London classrooms. Every year, we run 20–30 singing workshops in our local London schools where opportunities for regular group singing and performance are limited. These workshops provide a valuable shared musical experience for the children and The Bach Choir, and they culminate in the Vocalise! Summer Concert, where we get to see and hear the joyful results.

The Bach Choir began its life in 1876 with the UK premiere of Bach’s B minor Mass, and on our 150th Anniversary we’re continuing the tradition with a very special premiere from Stephanie Jayne Amies entitled The Swifts of Summer.

The performance will be the culmination of a year’s work by children from three London schools – Ark White City, Wilberforce, and Flora Gardens. The Bach Choir will join the children on this musical journey, too, just as they have done in every one of our Vocalise! in-school workshops. This performance is the product of a whole year of shared singing, learning, and discovery which has crossed generations.

Amies’ expansive work follows the remarkable lives of swifts as they soar from the rooftops of the UK to the skies of Africa and back, capturing their resilience, grace, and joyful screams. Through the music, listeners are invited to share in the wonder of the natural world, to pause, look up, and experience the beauty of these extraordinary birds in motion. The Common Swift was recently red-listed in the UK after a 60% drop in population over the last 25 years – so it’s becoming increasingly urgent that we get in tune with them.

The concert also features companion pieces exploring the natural world, and BSL for these will be provided by Paul Whittaker.

Join us to celebrate and support music education and the natural world.

Repertoire

The Swifts of Summer – Stephanie Jayne Amies
Believe – Lin Marsh
Turn – Music by Emil Adler, Lyrics by Julie Flanders, arr. Keiji Ishiguri
Kusimama – Jim Papoulis

Also featuring creative contributions by children from Ark White City, Wilberforce, and Flora Gardens.

Conductor - David Hill
Chorus - Year 4 & 5, Flora Gardens Primary
Chorus - Year 4 & 5, Ark White City Academy
Chorus - Year 5, Wilberforce Primary
Chorus - The Bach Choir
Piano - Philip Scriven
Percussion - Gus Wallett
BSL - Paul Whittaker

If you can’t attend but you’d like to donate to the Vocalise! Programme, you can buy a ‘donation ticket’, which will go towards supporting the programme in future years so that we can keep sharing the joy of singing.