Chorus

Southbank Centre’s annual Chorus festival celebrates and explores the power of singing together. 2015’s festival brings thousands of singers together across the Easter weekend and beyond to perform, learn, enjoy and be inspired.

Easter Sunday is Sing Out Sunday, filling Royal Festival Hall with 1,000 voices to perform popular songs arranged by Mark De-Lisser, alongside guest stars from BBC’s The Voice and a full band.

In contrast, HUG is an intimate examination of the human voice’s power over our emotions in the form of an encounter between 25 singers and 25 blindfolded audience members.

The world premiere of The James Taylor Quartet’s ‘Rochester Mass’ gives singers the chance to join an intensive two-day workshop before taking part in the Queen Elizabeth Hall show.

Bach’s St Matthew Passion is presented afresh by the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. The festival also welcomes the National Youth Choirs of Great Britain, who collaborate for the first time with one of the world’s greatest a cappella vocal ensembles, Sweden’s The Real Group.

In this year’s busy selection of workshops, in you can explore Eastern European vocal music, create a human sound machine, experiment with combining voice and movement, learn Mendelssohn’s Elijah and more.

There are also plenty of free opportunities to have a sing, and to join in debates on singing-related topics. Chorus is curated by Southbank Centre’s year-round vocal programme, Voicelab, and everyone is welcome.


Our personal favourite event is: Pitch Bach...

Learn a Bach chorale in 60 minutes and be part of an instant choir. For each session, one of the UK's top singing leaders takes on their favourite chorale from Bach’s St Matthew Passion. Get your singing voice in gear in the lead-up to Chorus festival and immerse yourself in one of the masterpieces of choral music. The passion is performed in full by the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment with Mark Padmore on Thursday 2 April. Sessions take place every day at 6pm from Monday 30 March to Wednesday 1 April.