Young Voices Festival

RSCM Young Voices Festivals are wonderful opportunities for young people from schools and churches to join together in song in fabulous venues across the UK. Young singers find them to be inspiring musical and spiritual experiences, and they also benefit from the chance to develop vocal and musical skills under expert musical direction.

Young Voices Festivals are Voice for Life outreach events. The Voice for Life scheme is one of the RSCM's core educational programmes, which exists to encourage, support and promote singing in schools, churches and the wider community.

• You can find the full range of themed festival services for young people here

The latest service in the series is entitled Water of Life, celebrating God's physical and spiritual gift of water. It includes hymns and songs which your choir will love to sing, as well as readings and prayers. It can be used for upper, equal or mixed voice groups, and much of the material will be suitable for use at other services, concerts and school assemblies throughout the year.

See below for:

List of music and sound clips
Festival events
What you will need
To book places or arrange your own festival

Music included in the service:

Gaelic Blessing (Rutter)
As the deer (Hurd)
As water to the thirsty (Coleman, arr Barnard)
Calm me, Lord (Rizza)
Come all you people (Bell)
Lord you have come to the seashore (arr Weaver)
Thou whose almighty word
O healing river (arr Weaver)
Eternal Father
Sing of the Lord’s Goodness
The Lord’s My Shepherd (Townend)
Water of Life (Dean)

Listen to sound clips of the songs:

• O healing river
  
• A Gaelic blessing
  

 

This Festival service is also supporting WaterAid, and is an ideal resource for choirs joining in with Sing for Water on World Water Day or throughout the year.
See www.wateraid.org/singforwater.

 

Festival events

There are festival services around the country from which to choose - details of all events will appear on this page as soon as they are available:

Festival venue, date and director	Contact details
Water of Life St Mary-at-Finchley Parish Church, London Saturday 17 March 2012, 1.45pm Young singers from the London Area will join forces to sing together in an act of worship exploring the physical and spiritual role of water in our lives. The singers will be directed by Alison Fisher. Please note that music should be prepared in advance. Resources are available from RSCM Music Direct. Cost: free	Alison Fisher Tel: 020 8329 0824 Email: alison.smart(at)ntlworld.com or Penny Davison Tel: 020 8346 4600 Email: pendavison(at)live.co.uk
Water of Life All Saints Church, Grayswood Road, Haslemere Saturday 26 May 2012, 11.00am, service at 4.00pm (timings TBC) Sing with other children from schools and junior church choirs led by Frances Novillo, Regional Music Adviser. Choir leaders, please register in advance and attend with your young singers on the day. You will need to buy one Water of Life book from RSCM Music Direct, copy the song sheets for your singers and learn the music. Parents and friends are welcome to the service at 4.00pm. Cost: £2 per singer	Shirley Richmond Tel: 01428 653285 Email: shirley(at)srichmond2.orangehome.co.uk
All God's People Holy Trinity Church, Belbroughton, Worcs Sunday 10 June 2012, 1.30pm (service at 4.30pm) Hannah Dix and Simon Wilkinson lead this afternoon of music making for children and young people, culminating in an RSCM Young Voices Festival. The day will involve children from local schools and choirs joining together for a service at 4.30pm, which parents and family are welcome to attend. Cost: free	Hannah Dix Tel: 01562 731499 / 07712 620066 Email: music(at)holytrinitybelbroughton.co.uk

What you will need

Each choir will need to purchase one copy of the Water of Life book, with accompanying CD-ROM. This includes all the musical and liturgical resources for the service which can be printed/photocopied as many times as necessary. Also contained on the CD-ROM are training notes, demonstration tracks and backing tracks, to help choirs in their preparation for the event.

The Water of Life book can be ordered from RSCM Music Direct online here.

Or download the booking form to send to RSCM Music Direct:

• download order form for your copy of the Water of Life book

To book places

Please use the contact details given above to request details of how to book and a booking form. Some of the locations are extremely popular and we would advise early booking.

To arrange your own Young Voices Festival

The flexible format of the festival services make them ideal for use at your own event. We hope that schools and churches will wish to collaborate in encouraging young singers to take part.

We have prepared a free guidance pack to help you organise your own festival using any of the RSCM's themed services. The pack includes advice on arranging and staffing the event.

• Download guidance pack, including details of other themed services

Further information

If you have any queries or would like more information please contact:
RSCM Education, 19 The Close, Salisbury SP1 2EB
Tel 01722 424843, Fax 01722 424849, Email education(at)rscm.com