charities to benefit from young singers’ efforts

Children from all backgrounds are being taught to sing by one of Scotland’s top voice coaches to help raise thousands of pounds for charity. Jack McKeown previews the 2013 City of Discovery Charity Concert.

“AT FIRST they are grumpy and reticent. They don’t want to do it. But by the end they’ve thrown themselves into it and received a confidence boost that will carry over into everything else they go on to do.”

This is how award winning soprano and vocal coach Anna Flannagan sums up the experience of building a children’s choir from scratch.

She is putting together the children’s choir that will perform as part of the 2013 City of Discovery Charity Concert.

Over the next six months, around 200 children from schools all over Dundee will be training for the performance of a lifetime. They will share a stage with Britain’s most popular soprano Lesley Garrett and the Royal Scottish National Opera.

The event will raise up to £20,000 for charity, which will be divided between Tayside Cancer Support and Ninewells Cancer Campaign.

Anna Flannagan has been the vocal coach for the BBC Proms, The BBC SSO and the BBC Philharmonic Learning Programmes. She also trained the Dundee Proms Chorus, which wowed audiences in the Caird Hall and on national television at the Last Night of the Proms, from Scotland in 2010 and 2011.

This is not the first time Anna has taken a group of children and taught them to sing from scratch.

“Learning to sing is hugely enabling,” she said. “I put together the Manchester Schools’ Children’s Choir – 200 children who had done no singing before and were from pretty deprived backgrounds. Many of them were from special units or had been excluded.

“It was very different from working with the Dundee Proms Choir which was 200 adults who had all volunteered.”

Anna had to use all her mettle to prevent the rehearsals from descending into chaos. “The only thing that would work was content. It was a matter of choosing good music. We did things from Wicked – Defying Gravity – and then more challenging stuff. For me one of the keys is to have them take real ownership of the music.

“The Dundee schools have been really good so far. We have gone from 30 kids who were giggling and a bit reticent to them singing their hearts out.”

“There’s no such thing as someone who can’t ever sing.”

Anna Flannagan

How does Anna cope with those who lack natural talent?

“There’s no such thing as someone who can’t ever sing. Everyone can learn. Lots of the kids I’ve taught started off protesting, ‘I cannae sing!’ but by the end they could.”

Anna will start the ball rolling, then leave the children to get on with practising in their own time and with their schools ’music teachers. Then Anna will return for a series of six rehearsals leading up to the event itself.

The concert will be the first time in more than 40 years that children from all nine of Dundee’s state-run secondary schools have been brought together for a singing event

“By June we should have 20 to 25 pupils from each school who are all keen.”

The City of Discovery Charity Concert was set up in 2008 with the idea of holding a biennial concert to raise money for good causes. The first concert, held in 2009, featured Alfie Boe and attracted an audience of 1,300. The second took place last year, with Nicola Benedetti and Laura McGhee taking top billing. Both concerts raised around £10,000 each and organisers are hopeful the 2013 concert can raise £15,000-20,000.

Patron Lorraine Kelly said: “I was delighted to be asked to be the Patron of the City of Discovery Charity Concert. The aim of the biennial fund-raising concerts is to help local charities. At the same time, we want to promote local musical talent by giving them the opportunity of performing with leading musicians.”

Although the choir will probably disband after the concert, Anna says it will still leave a lasting legacy.

“The legacy of the Manchester Children’s Choir was a little boy called Howard who had a stutter and was very shy, but discovered he had a beautiful singing voice. That gave him genuine confidence. The confidence these children gain through this will spill over into everything else they go on to do in their lives. The children at the Discovery Concert will feel like they’re really part of something.”

The 2013 City of Discovery Charity Concert takes place on June 8. Tickets go on sale on January 11 and will be available from the Caird Hall Box Office: cairdhall.co.uk or 01382 434940. For more information visit cityofdiscoveryconcert.co.uk

Chorus director of Dundee Children’s Choir Anna Flannagan puts some of the pupils through their paces at Braeview Academy.