Birmingham Inclusive Choir: An End of Year Update

Birmingham Inclusive Choir is delivered in partnership between SFE and national charity Soundabout.

Birmingham Inclusive Choir has been running for a few years now and seeks to remove barriers for children and young people with severe and profound learning disabilities, enabling them to participate in music and singing.

Face-to-face sessions are run monthly during term time at the Midlands Arts Centre (MAC), welcoming young people with disabilities and their parents/carers, with additional online sessions happening in between as part of West Midlands Inclusive Choir.

Sessions are great fun, led by a team of experienced musicians from Soundabout and SFE. They involve a range of instrumental and vocal activities for participants, with some songs having physical actions and ‘call and response’ moments for everyone to join in with.

Participants can also use a range of hand-held music-making instruments including tambourines, maracas, egg shakers, and a xylophone.

This year, our Birmingham Inclusive Choir has featured on local radio (BBC WM) as part of our Big Give campaign, raising over £2,000 towards the costs of running the choir. This also gave us the opportunity to raise awareness of the choir with the aim of increasing members. Naomi, mum to Thomas who attends the choir, spoke about their experience and what it means to them, adding a personal aspect to the interview.

It was great to see new members and their parents/carers come along to sessions, bringing new energy to an already fantastic group. They have enjoyed singing their favourite songs, (Abba’s Dancing Queen always being a crowd pleaser), as well as taking part in collaborative performances with other Inclusive Choirs through the power of video – the latest summer inspired one can be watched here.

One of this year’s highlights has been the group joining fifteen of our other music ensembles as part of our Outdoor Festival in May. The sun shone as the group took to the stage to perform a few of their favourite songs to a sold-out audience, with lots of cheers and audience participation from those in their seats.

Participants really enjoyed the experiences, doing something that many of them had never done before, with feedback being incredibly positive:

‘I loved it, it felt great being on a proper stage and singing to people. I think they liked it too’. – M, Inclusive Choir member

”He really enjoys his choir sessions and loved being part of the performance. His mum was really proud to see him on stage and taking part in something he loves so much.’ – Carer of Inclusive Choir member

‘T really enjoyed it and hasn’t stopped talking about it to anyone who will listen. He got to do his favourite song on stage which was amazing, and he did really well staying on stage and not needing to get down. Such a great experience for him.’ – Naomi, mum to Thomas, Inclusive Choir member.

Our Birmingham Inclusive Choir sessions cost around £15,000 a year to run and are only possible thanks to our fundraising efforts.