During autumn 2006, the internationally renowned Black Voices quintet staged the first of a series of concerts and singing workshops at rural venues across the south west with their glorious a cappella mix of Gospel, spirituals, Caribbean, African, jazz and blues.
Black Voices, a cappella group, give singing workshops to the local community in village halls, Kevin Clifford
The project, a partnership collaboration between six of the rural touring schemes operating in the region, was made possible with a grant for arts grant of £14,000 from Arts Council England, South West and was the first in a two-phase project aiming to bring culturally diverse music and dance to rural communities.
Partners
The project partners are Carn to Cove in Cornwall, Beaford Arts in Devon, Villages in Action in Devon, Artsreach in Dorset, Air in G in Gloucestershire and Take Art in Somerset, and the project follows on from the successful Time and Tide project in 2005, where a number of the rural touring schemes collaborated together in a large scale project celebrating the south west’s relationship with the sea.
Involving the community
The Black Voices project began with a regional choir weekend for choir leaders and key choir members in Farringdon, East Devon. Attended by 50 people over two days, the workshops gave participants the opportunity to work with Black Voices, to learn new songs to teach to their own choirs and to participate in concerts alongside Black Voices themselves. 32 members of Crediton choir in Devon sang with Black Voices at a concert in Axmouth and the Totnes choir performed alongside them to a village hall packed with 200 people in Bere Ferrers.
Roger Werner, Director of the Devon rural touring scheme Villages in Action said, ‘The Axmouth concert was completely sold out and a number of people were disappointed they couldn’t get tickets. When Black Voices heard about this, they did an impromptu performance in the local pub so everyone could get to hear them! It was amazing – the impact of something like this in a small community is almost incalculable.’
Based in Birmingham, Black Voices have been singing together since 1987. They have made numerous recordings, hosted and presented their own a cappella series with BBC Radio 2 and performed for radio and television around the world. Roger Werner continues, ‘Artists of such high quality are expensive – far beyond what rural touring schemes can afford to pay. The grant from Arts Council England, South West, allowed us to subsidise the cost of the performances and workshops and made it possible for us to bring this work to rural communities. It has been our first opportunity to work with such a high profile group and it has helped touring schemes extend the range of their culturally diverse work significantly.’ Three further Black Voices concerts took place in Gloucestershire and Dorset during February 2007.
For more information on national rural touring schemes visit www.nrtf.org.uk
