MANCHESTER LGBTQ+ CHOIR SHORTLISTED AS FINALIST FOR NATIONAL LOTTERY PROJECT OF THE YEAR AWARD
The Sunday Boys,
Manchester’s LGBTQ+ choir for low voices, has been shortlisted from over 1500
nominations as a finalist for the prestigious National Lottery Project of the
Year Award.
The National Lottery Awards are a chance to celebrate the inspirational
work of ordinary people and projects who do extraordinary things with the help
of National Lottery funding. The Sunday Boys, who received National Lottery funding through
Arts Council England, have been selected as one of 17 finalists from over 1500 nominations
for The National Lottery Project of the Year Award which is now open for public
vote. The winner will receive a £3,000 cash prize for their organisation and a
coveted National Lottery Awards trophy.
The Sunday Boys have been nominated for their work engaging LGBTQ+ people across Greater Manchester to sing and create music together over the last 5 years, and also for providing a lifeline to many in the community who have been at higher risk of social isolation and poor mental health during the pandemic.
Members of the public can vote for The Sunday Boys, or any of the other fantastic projects, online on the National Lottery Good Causes website or on Twitter using the #NLASundayBoys hashtag.
Vote for The Sunday Boys
The Sunday Boys was formed five years ago by Manchester-based composer and conductor Michael Betteridge, who wanted to create an inclusive LGBTQ+ choir for low voiced singers in the city to enjoy music, perform and make friends. The choir provides an ambitious, innovative and safe space for LGBTQ+ people and their allies to come together, connect and grow through their love of music and music making. The Sunday Boys tell queer stories through choral singing and provide an important voice for the LGBTQ+ community.
When the pandemic halted rehearsals last year,
The Sunday Boys were determined to keep making music together. Providing a
sense of community and support through music has been vital as LGBTQ+ people
have been at higher risk of social isolation and poor mental health, along with
restricted access to specialist health provision. Greater Manchester in
particular, a region with one of the UK’s highest LGBTQ+ populations, also
faced many more periods of lockdown and isolation than other parts of the UK.
In response to the nomination Michael Betteridge, Artistic Director of The Sunday Boys, said: “We are so excited that The Sunday Boys are finalists in this year’s National Lottery Awards. The Sunday Boys were created to give Manchester an inclusive LGBTQ+ choir for people to learn how to sing great music, perform and of course make friends. It’s amazing to see the impact the group has on not only its members, but the people we perform too as well. We are really proud of the work we’ve done in the local LGBTQ+ community and the funding received from the National Lottery has been pivotal our success.
“Regardless of the outcome, it’s been incredible to be recognised for everything that we do – it’s a real honour and we really hope people will get behind us for the vote and beyond!”
Jonathan Tuchner, from the National Lottery, added: “In these challenging times that we still find ourselves in, we see so many examples of inspirational work throughout our communities, driven by these very projects. It’s thanks to National Lottery players, who raise more than £30 million each week for good causes, that brilliant projects like these, are possible.
“The
Sunday Boys have done some fantastic work within the LGBTQ+ community and they
thoroughly deserve to be in the finals of the National Lottery Awards Project
of the Year 2021. With your support, they could be a winner.”
During the pandemic The Sunday Boys have undertaken a number of creative musical projects ranging from the sombre to the hilarious. In July 2020 they launched their first digital concert ‘At Home with the Sunday Boys’ featuring a mix of new and archived material and recorded a video of ‘I Carry Your Heart with Me’ for the Manchester Pride online vigil. They also created music videos for Queen’s ‘I Want to Break Free’, Joni Mitchell’s ‘Urge for Going’, as well as ‘Summer’s Gonna Come Again’, a new commission with Manchester playwright Joshua Val Martin, all inspired by the emotions felt by many members of the choir during lockdown. Most recently Michael Betteridge won the Making Music Award for his arrangement of Swedish folk song ‘Summer Will Come Again’ featured in the ‘Summer’s Gonna Come Again’ commission.
One of the biggest lockdown projects of the pandemic was a brand-new collaboration with Scottish composer and singer-songwriter Finn Anderson and the North West’s largest performance venue, The Lowry, funded by Arts Council England. Finn Anderson (composer of Edinburgh Fringe and Southwark Playhouse hit musical ‘Islander’, and solo album ‘Until the Light’) wrote ‘Distant Dream’ in collaboration with the choir. It is a moving song about speaking back to your younger self and offering words of reassurance. Both the audio and music video were recorded in The Lowry’s Lyric Theatre.
‘Distant Dream’ was released by The Lowry as an online film as part of their Love Lowry digital programme and has since been performed live at Manchester Pride’s vigil this year after it resonated with HIV activist and actor Nathaniel Hall (Donald in Russel T Davies ‘It’s A Sin’, broadcast by Channel 4 earlier this year). The choir performed the song to a crowd of thousands after a powerful speech by Nathaniel Hall and it was accompanied by a moving dance by North West company HawkDance.
To rehearse for ‘Distant
Dream’ and Manchester Pride, the choir has been rehearsing both online and in a
multi-storey carpark in Manchester’s city centre. In a specially commissioned
documentary about the project, several choir members speak about the sense of
community and support that the choir offers:
Joseph Owen, tenor, said: “Having
the choir as a queer space with other people who have shared interests has made
me feel less alone.”
José Peixoto Coelho de Souza, baritone, said: “I really needed a place where I could have a sense of belonging. I had just come out, so having the chance to be singing, even remotely, with other gay people has been priceless… The chance to be part of something bigger, and doing something you love.”
During the pandemic The Sunday Boys continued to attract new members to join the choir and have actually increased their membership.
The Sunday Boys are an unauditioned LGBTQ+ low voice choir in Manchester meeting every Sunday at 5.15pm at Halle St Michael’s in Ancoats. To enquire about joining the choir visit the choir’s website: www.thesundayboys.com/sing-with-us
To vote for The Sunday Boys for The National Lottery Project of the Year Award, visit www.lotterygoodcauses.org.uk/projects or use the #NLASundayBoys hashtag on Twitter. Each person can only vote once on Twitter and once via the website. Voting runs from 6th September until 5pm on 4th October.
www.lotterygoodcauses.org.uk/projects/view/the-sunday-boys?context=vote
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