On 12th October 2020, the Arts Council announced awards to 1385 arts organisations, including Some Voices, as part of the Government’s Culture Recovery Fund. The fund is designed to help allow performances to restart, venues to plan for reopening and to help protect jobs and create opportunities for freelancers.
“We are over the moon and incredibly grateful to receive this much needed investment that will allow us to continue our mission of bringing people together to sing and share experiences. It will enable us to support our small team and our Some Voices family of freelancers including choir leaders, singers, musicians, videographers, and many more.”
Laura Howe, Musical Director, Some Voices
Some Voices is a non-audition, contemporary choir, which was formed in London 2010 with a small group of singers and by January 2020 had grown to almost 1,000 members rehearsing at 14 London venues and a newly launched choir in Newcastle. Some Voices creates original vocal arrangements of popular songs and bring together a community who share a love of singing together, culminating termly rehearsals in high-energy performances. The choir is accessible and inclusive, with no auditions or requirement to read music, so anyone can join in.
In March 2020, Some Voices suspended in-person rehearsals and performances due to COVID-19, pivoting to offering online rehearsals and video performances shared publicly on YouTube. Choir directors Laura Howe and Curtis Stansfield have worked tirelessly in this time to keep the Some Voices community together, knowing how important it is to our members and the positive effect of music on mental health in difficult times. With an initial lack of funding and income, membership activities were suspended in July 2020.
This grant will allow Some Voices to continue as an organisation in the short term and enable us to keep our small dedicated team running, so that we can keep creating opportunities for our members to connect and sing, in whatever ways we can do so safely.
“We’re determined to come back stronger than ever and will be doing everything possible to generate as much work, music, singing and positive vibes as we can. This grant will help facilitate some of that.
The whole being greater than the sum of its parts has always applied to Some Voices, and so we thank everyone in our community for your support and contributions along the way. You make us what we are; an organisation that has thankfully been considered worthy of this public funding.”
Curtis Stansfield, Musical Director, Some Voices
We are here for our members, we are here for the love of singing together, we are #HereForCulture.
