Emily Barden is promising a mass outbreak of joy when she brings nearly 400 children together on the Chichester Festival Theatre stage.
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00:00Good afternoon, my name is Phil here at Group Arts Editorial in Sussex Newspapers, always
00:06lovely to speak to Emily Barden. Now Emily, you're doing a fantastic thing, a huge thing
00:11at Chichester Festival Theatre, and as you say it's what it says on the tin, United Voices
00:16on Wednesday January 15th. Tell me who you're bringing together to do this and what it is.
00:24I am bringing together, I think it's 12 primary schools from the local Chichester area, and
00:29they're coming together as a massed choir to perform songs that in some way reflect
00:34the values of the schools in Chichester, so things about kindness, resilience, strength,
00:41working together, communication, all of these things. We're going to sing together in song,
00:47and yeah there should be about 400 young voices, sort of year five and six, singing together.
00:55What's so very special about singing in those numbers?
00:59I think for me it's the idea of doing something with all of those people, it's a single focused
01:05thing that you all do together, and music when you sing together has more power anyway
01:11than singing on your own. It's scientifically proven that singing is good for you, but it's
01:16even more scientifically proven that singing with other people is good for you, it does
01:20something, it's sort of, your breathing, your heart rate, everything kind of comes together
01:26as one thing. So I'm hoping that the children are going to get this sense of togetherness,
01:32the word united voices really does it, this feeling of bringing together lots as one.
01:36And I don't know if you know some of the Chichester schools, especially the rural ones around
01:41the Goodwood area, they're little schools, so the idea that suddenly they're going to
01:46get the opportunity to sing with 400 voices, I hope that it is a really, you know, mind-blowing
01:51experience for them.
01:52And on top of that, you were saying that just the act of singing is a fantastic way
01:56of embedding the school's core values, giving meaning to them.
01:59Really, really good. Yeah, a lot of schools, I visit a lot of schools and I'm always really
02:04interested in having a look, I always look at the displays around the corridors, and
02:08a lot of the schools have really sort of come together and thought about the values that
02:13they want their school to reflect. So in the way that the children are, the way the teachers
02:18are, the way the school feels, then quite a lot of them have got them up on the walls,
02:22you know, nice and big. And so the programme for the music that we're doing at this festival
02:28theatre, I've chosen to try and reflect a lot of those shared values that I'm seeing
02:32around the schools. You know, again, like I said, about empathy and kindness and hard
02:37work, resilience, teamwork, everybody's talking about coming together and being bigger than
02:42just yourself, which is what a choir is, essentially, you are bigger than just yourself.
02:48It's a lovely way to think of it. And when I asked you just now what you want the children
02:52to walk away with, you instantly said joy. That's a reward.
02:56Yeah, I think it is utterly, utterly joyful. And even if you're singing a song that isn't
03:03particularly joyful, actually, that shared experience of the voices together, I think
03:08does create a sense of joy. And I'm really hopeful that that's what the audience are
03:13going to get to, that they're going to come away feeling just uplifted by these fantastic
03:18children's voices.
03:20I'm sure they will. It's United Voices, Chichester Festival Theatre, Wednesday, January the 15th.
03:26Emily, as always, really lovely to speak to you. Thank you.
03:29Thank you. Thanks.