Inspiring Voices: New Podcast from Sing Up Foundation
Sing Up Foundation launches Inspiring Voices, a new podcast exploring the role of singing in improving mental health and wellbeing
The first three episodes of the Sing Up Foundation’s new podcast, Inspiring Voices are now available. Inspiring Voices is a new podcast from the Sing Up Foundation dedicated to exploring therole of singing, songwriting, voice exploration and creative music-making in improving children and young people’s mental health and wellbeing. The podcast is hosted by the Sing Up Foundation’s Joint Head of Foundation Baz Chapman and features inspiring conversations with singers, leaders, researchers and other music specialists.
The first series will feature nine conversations that will be released fortnightly from September to December 2023 on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music and Google Podcasts. Each episode of Inspiring Voices will also be available to view as videos on the Sing Up Foundation’s YouTube channel. This first series has been funded through support received by Sing Up and the Sing Up Foundation from Round 3 of Arts Council England’s Cultural Recovery Fund and the podcast will be of particular interest to teachers, school leaders, teaching students, community workers, music leaders, singing leaders, choir leaders, charity workers, mental health workers and anyone working with children and young people.
The first episode of the Inspiring Voices podcast, features a conversation with wellbeing music specialist, educator, author and speaker Sophie Garner. In this episode, Sophie shares her advice with Baz on how to get started with singing with any group and through poignant stories from across her career, she demonstrates how she gets young people involved in songwriting. She also introduces her books on singing to support children & young people's mental health & wellbeing.
The second episode, features a conversation with vocalist, clarinettist, composer and workshop leader Aga Serugo-Lugo. In this inspirational conversation, Aga shares his experiences and views on the value of group singing, the power of performance and tips for leading singing successfully taken from his years of working with groups as wide ranging as Streetwise Opera to local community choirs to children’s groups and Music in Detention to name a few.
The third episode, released this week, features Sheffield-based musician and Yorkshire Youth and Music's lead practitioner Chris Morris talking about his work working with young people in secure settings, finding ways to connect with young people through music, in particular through singing and songwriting - often with transformational results.
The first season of Inspiring Voices will also feature conversations singing leader and director of Living Song Jane Wheeler, community musician and vice chair of Sound Sense Mark Bick, Chair of Music Education at University College London Professor Graham Welch, international non-binary beatbox star SK Shlomo, Creative Manager, Community Leader, Award-winning Educator Ben Turner and vocal animateur and Principal Conductor of Young Voices David Lawrence. A video trailer for the first season featuring all the guests can be found at https://bit.ly/IVPodTrailer
Baz Chapman, Joint Head of Foundation and Inspiring Voices podcast host says: ‘At a time when children and young people’s mental health and wellbeing is of increasing concern, we want Inspiring Voices to shine a light on the outstanding work being done by all sorts of people to transform young lives through singing. The podcast guests have been an absolute privilege to speak with, and we hope they will inspire others to explore how singing and vocal creativity can achieve amazing things’.
The first two episodes of Inspiring Voices can be heard now on the following platforms at:
Spotify: https://bit.ly/IVPodSpotify
Apple: https://apple.co/45ZCVTx
Amazon Music: https://amzn.to/3raZXrF
Google: https://bit.ly/IVPodGoogle
YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@SingUpFoundation
Visit www.singupfoundation.org and www.inspiringvoices.org.uk for more.
