Bullfrog Arts: The Bullfrog Chorus at De Montfort Hall
It’s been an incredible journey but we got there! This week marks the end of our 30 week project working with some of our city’s most vulnerable young people. When we started out, a little under a year ago, I’m not sure any of us involved would’ve imagined that it would result in a choir of 16 looked after young people who would not only take on the challenge of singing to a full house in the prestigious De Montfort Hall but perform with such confidence and energy.
The first round of workshops resulted in performing to family and friends at Curve theatre last October and our second round of workshops saw the Bullfrog Chorus perform to an audience of 300 – 400 at the Peepul Centre before Christmas. This term we began our series of workshops, entitled ‘Song Seekers’ and announced that our aim would be to perform to over a thousand people in De Montfort Hall at the Leicester-Shire Schools Music Service Spring Gala Concert . De Montfort Hall has seen some of the worlds most amazing performers take to it’s stage; a suitably challenging and exciting goal.
Last Tuesday evening the Bullfrog Chorus took to the stage before an audience of 1450 people and gave an incredible performance of a specially prepared a mixture of popular songs from different decades; a medley that included Ellie Goulding, Bob Marley, John Lennon and Survivor. The young people were then joined by our adult choir of foster carers “The Bullfrog Crescendo” and together gave a rendition of Take That’s ‘Never Forget’. The audience were moved and joined us to raise the roof in the final chorus to be met with a deafening applause.
For all of us involved we’ll sorely miss our Bullfrog Chorus Wednesdays as it will leave a huge gap in our weekly activities. We’ve worked with our young people for 30 weeks and have seen huge progress in their musical abilities, talent and personal development. We’ve found our obstacles to overcome and make no pretence that it’s been an easy task but conclude that to see these incredible youngsters who’ve overcome so much in their lives step up and deliver this challenge was worth every ounce of effort and energy. Inspirational, moving, incredible.
Next step the Albert Hall?