Here’s the opportunity to join a global choir... from the comfort of your own home.
The Afrovibes Festival will be visiting a total of 17 venues throughout the UK, including Manchester’s Contact in October, but meantime they’re inviting anyone who loves singing to make their own contribution.
South Hill Park arts centre in Bracknell has chosen to create a ‘virtual choir’, which will give its inaugural performance at the Festival’s launch on October 13. People from all over the world are invited to record themselves singing a new work composed by Tim Cumper, musical director at South Hill Park.
This specially-commissioned traditional English choral piece, entitled No Easy Road to Freedom, is a tribute to the South African freedom struggle: words used in Nelson Mandela’s 1994 inaugural presidential speech are set to music in honour of the 20th anniversary of democracy in South Africa.
Participants can record themselves performing their part in the song almost anywhere, as long as they have an internet connection and a camera, webcam, mobile phone or similar. Afrovibes provide full instructions for how to learn, practise and record an individual contribution and submit it for inclusion.
Harnessing the power of internet and laptop technology, the voices and videos will be edited to create a recording of the separate voices singing together in harmony.
To find out more, and how to join in (the deadline for all recorded submissions is 11pm on September 12), go to www.afrovibesUK.com/takepart where you can download everything you need and full instructions on how to submit a finished contribution.
Contact welcomes the return from October 27 to November 1 of the biennial festival which brings award-winning South African music, theatre, dance, photography and film to the UK.