Voicelab | Southbank Centre

Voicelab

Sunday 18 December 2011
Welcome Yule  &
Voicelab’s Big Winter Sing
Part of Southbank Centre’s Winter Festival

Welcome Yule
1.15pm, The Clore Ballroom: Performance
Enjoy a celebration of winter with songs, jigs and wassails gleaned from traditional folk resources and arranged by Bellowhead’s Andy Mellon.  Voicelab Director Mary King and its Surge and Swell choirs will be supported in performance by other members of the iconic band, Southbank Centre Artists in Residence, in a programme where familiar carols are intertwined with rarer gems. Joining us in festive mood will be the dance troupe Morris Offspring and their leader and choreographer Laurel Swift, who has also worked with this huge ensemble of singers, assisted by Samantha Ivey.

VOICELAB’S BIG WINTER SING
18th December
4.30pm, The Clore Ballroom: Massed Sing
4.55pm onwards, Across the foyers of Royal Festival Hall: Performances by individual choirs

Come and join in with the choirs taking part in Voicelab’s Big Winter Sing in a selection of best loved Christmas carols. Raise your voice with them in The Clore Ballroom, and then follow your ears and wander to discover choirs of all ages and sizes as they disperse around the foyers of the Royal Festival Hall, singing in every nook and cranny.

Recent Voicelab projects include performing:

  • Singing RiverIn Mass, the culmination of a year long season celebrating the work of Leonard Bernstein. Over 300 Voicelabbers performed in the show.
  • Alongside Bobby McFerrin as part of Ornette Coleman’s Meltdown 2009.
  • In the Lost and Found Orchestra, Southbank Centre’s 2008 Christmas show from the creators of Stomp.
  • With Mercury Prize winners Elbow in their sell out gig as part of Massive Attack’s Meltdown 2008. Read an article about this project featured in The Times on 13 June 2008.
  • In a number of projects with Artists in Residence Bellowhead.
  • In huge choral festivals at Southbank Centre including Mahler's Symphony No. 2, where over 450 singers joined Marin Alsop, the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and soloists as part of Chorus 2010, and Various Voices in 2009
  • In Paco Pena's Requiem for the Earth which was performed with Paco’s Flamenco troupe in Royal Festival Hall.
  • Orlando Gough’s The Singing River as part of Royal Festival Hall reopening celebrations.
  • Workshops on musical theatre, beatboxing, gospel, jazz, pop and world music.

Watch Mary King introduce Voicelab on YouTube

"If people can produce a sound, they can sing! Voicelab will be about unlocking people's potential." (Jude Kelly, Artistic Director of Southbank Centre)

VOICELAB'S CHOIRS

  • SURGE
    Everyone who asks to join our Voicelab database is automatically a member of SURGE, and projects open to this group are for everyone irrespective of their level of singing knowledge. Projects never require an audition.
  • SWELL
    This is a smaller group of singers who have successfully auditioned at some point over Voicelab's three years, and been invited to join this group. Members of SWELL are often given separate opportunities to participate in projects with Voicelab that require a certain level of vocal ability. Annual auditions are held to join SWELL (next auditions are in early 2011).

To register your interest in either of these projects please email voicelab@southbankcentre.co.uk

Voicelab is a Southbank Centre initiative supported by Paul Hamlyn Foundation