Award winning Bullfrog Chorus: Bullfrog Arts
It is with great delight that we share the incredible news of the progress and developments of our looked-after children’s choir. We began our weekly workshops back in July 2013 and over the autumn saw the group develop from a group of youngsters interested in singing and music to an able and proficient young people’s choir. Their hard work was rewarded with receiving a special award from the City Council after their astounding performance at the Stars in the Making award ceremony.
The first third of our Youth Music funded workshops were based on the theme of musicals. Each week we were visited by a character from a different musical and learned a new song. In this second round of workshops we tried to create more of a choir-like format to the sessions by losing our theatrical visitors and altering the session plan to run more like that of a typical choir. Each week we learned a new song after watching a Youtube clip to whet our appetite. In our last blog we highlighted the difficulty we encountered in finding modern tunes that lyrically were appropriate that were matched by an equally acceptable video we could watch together. After hours of research and trawling the internet we succeeded in finding material which resulted in a mega-medley which we rehearsed and performed at a massive event in the Leicester City Council diary.
Stars in the Making is an inspirational award ceremony for looked after children between the ages of 11 – 14. Every single young person is commended and given an award for an aspect of progress, development or merit in their lives. The Bullfrog Chorus were invited to sing and entertain the 400 strong crowd. Despite a few nerves in the dress rehearsal the Bullfrog Chorus were more than alright on the night. They were incredible.
Seventeen young people, in just 16 rehearsals pulled together to deliver an outstanding and energetic performance to our biggest audience yet. Starting off with a little Take That’s Rule the World, the pace changed as we moved into Hall of Fame; into top gear for a verse and chorus of Katy Perry’s Roar and just when you’d think we’d reached the top, onto a massive anthemic finish with “Tonight we are young, so let’s set the world on fire, we can shine brighter than the sun…Tonight.” By now the audience are on their feet, clapping in time, singing along. The atmosphere was electric and the choir left the stage to a standing ovation and deafening applause.
The progress and developments within the group have been so immense that the chorus were given a special award by Leicester City Council. Bullfrog Chorus – Special Award Winners of Stars in the Making 2013.
We are proud beyond belief and are gearing ourselves up for round three of Bullfrog Chorus where this time we prepare to sing in Leicesters’ prestigious De Montfort Hall.