Raise a Voice: A Rebellious Songbook for Our Time

Raise a Voice was an innovative music-based project that used choral singing to challenge how participants and audiences think about climate culture. The project centred around a new 25-minute choral composition composed by Toby Young and written by Jennifer Thorp for adult and youth choirs to perform together. The composition celebrated ways that humankind benefit from the natural world whilst challenging listeners with the reality of what society risk losing from climate change. Songs from the songbook were written in collaboration with environmental researchers and policy makers, and highlighted multiple aspects of the climate emergency, with accompanying material such as programme notes and pre- concert talks acting as a catalyst for discussion and education. This project involved 104 adult choral participants from City of Bristol choir, 87 young participants from Bristol Youth Choir and 38 University of West of England Choir. There were two full performances of Wonderful World, conducted by David Ogden, which featured the complete repertoire composed during Raise A Voice, one in Bristol at Clifton Cathedral in November 2021 and one in Glasgow at the Theatre Royal in May 2022. A further two performances featuring the Bristol Youth Choir and one with Bristol City Choir took place in June 2022. There were two recordings for You Tube, one in Glasgow and one in Bristol.
Collaborative partners: Institute for Social Impact Research in the Performing Arts, Guildhall school (lead), University of Bristol, University of the West of England (UWE), Bristol Music Trust

Toby Young (PI), James Longhurst (CoI), Alix Dietzel (CoI), Maia Mackney (Postdoctoral Research Fellow)