Sharing Your Passion with the World - What it's Like to Give a TEDx Talk

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Starling co-directors Anna and Emily recently had the incredible opportunity to speak at TEDx Square Mile. Having been invited to speak (and sing!) about their work bringing people together through group singing, they didn’t need to look much further than the inspiring Starling Arts community to find life-changing stories to share. In their talk titled ‘Why the World Needs to Sing’, they spoke about why singing with others - in communities, businesses or choirs - can be a hugely transformative experience. To bring their message to life, they had the crowd up on their feet and singing in three part harmony.
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Starlings celebrate a special evening in Spitalfields

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Starling Arts had the privilege of being part of a very special event on Friday 6th November in the heart of Spitalfields Market. To mark the 50th anniversary of the incredible charity Spitalfields Crypt Trust (SCT) over 150 voices rang out in a flashmob and performances in the market - just in time for the weekend and a sponsored 'sleep in' at Christ Church Spitalfields to raise money for the charity's ongoing work supporting people recovering from addiction by helping them to get clean and sober, develop self-respect and hope for a much better future. 

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Singing For the Soul

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There's nothing that can't be made better by singing in a choir. Give me a problem and it'll seem less worrying after a good sing. Give me happy news and song will only serve to make me feel more joyful. Singing is the ultimate tonic, and put a group of singers in a room - pow - that's a whole cocktail of happiness right there.

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The Final Countdown: Abracadabra

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Last week, the Starling Arts community had an epic week of singing and dance rehearsals, concluding with our first full run of Abracadabra by our wonderful band, made up of bass guitar, drums and two keyboards. Find out how the magic is taking shape in this week's blog post. 

CHOIR REHEARSALS

Performance rehearsals continue with members of all three Starling Arts choirs, Corvida, Forte and the Starling Singers. The show pieces are coming together really well, and the choirs enjoyed watching snippets of each others' songs at our final combined rehearsal on Thursday evening.

BAND CALL 

On Friday came one of our favourite parts of the final preparations for our productions: band call, the first day our musicians get together to rehearse the music for a show. Having rehearsed with our singers for some months using only a piano or keyboard in a small hall, the introduction of the band is like the icing on the musical cake, bringing everything together. The instrumentation adds texture and personality to the songs, bringing them to life. 

Using 'patches' from a computer plugged into our 2nd keyboard, we can achieve an array of high quality sounds played through the keys. We have a strings section, electric guitar, 80s synth bass and a brass section at the flick of a switch! 

We think our Abracadabra band are rather special. The incredible musician Jen Green has worked with Starling Arts since our very first session back in January 2010, and Abracadabra marks her 7th show with us, incredibly!  The talented Dave Holden returns for a third time to play bass with us and we’re thrilled to welcome Sam Cooper to our line-up for the first time on drums! Starling Arts' co-director Anna Shields leads the band, and can be seen here on Keyboard 1. 

We can't wait to perform Abracadabra on 6th and 7th July 2013 at the John McIntosh Theatre, London, and hope you can join us! Tickets are available from our What's On page.