Royal High School Bath takes part in The Bath Festival’s Schools Voices project

After two years away The Bath Festival’s ‘The Party in the City’ is back with a vengeance, and this time Royal High School Bath will be one of the schools taking part in the city’s “biggest free party of the year” – which will launch The Bath Festival on Friday 13 May.

As part of The Festival’s Schools Voices project, students from eleven local schools have been working with Bath Philharmonia’s Creative Learning team of musicians to write four original songs based on the theme of ‘Journey’. Talented musicians from Royal High School Bath have teamed up with counterparts from Beechen Cliff and St Mark’s Secondary Schools to write the melody and lyrics for one of the songs, titled ‘Place’. They will join together with the other schools to form the Schools Voices Choir, a massed choir of over 100 students, to perform all four original pieces (‘Place’, ‘Mountains’, ‘Path’ and ‘Thank You’) at St Swithin’s Church on Friday 13 May at 6pm.

Two of the songs will also be performed by the Schools Voices Choir in the Concert for the People of Bath on Thursday 19 May, 7.30pm at The Forum.

Mark Bradbury, Director of Music at Royal High School Bath said “This is a fantastic opportunity for our students to be work collaboratively with students from the many different independent and state schools in Bath. The quality of the music that we’re hearing from the students is exceptional. What an amazing achievement by all the students who have been able to create such imaginative and uplifting pieces in such a short space of time We’re hopeful this will be the first of many projects that we’ll be involved in, successfully bringing together and inspiring young people with a shared passion and talent for music.”

The Bath Festivals’ Schools Voices project is an opportunity to bring the community together through song and develop young people’s creative expression. It was set up as a collaboration of Bath Festivals’ Creative Learning programme, teachers from both State and independent schools in Bath and North East Somerset and the Creative Learning team at Bath Philharmonia. The 11 schools taking part are: Beechen Cliff School, Hayesfield School, King Edward’s School, Kingswood School, Monkton Combe School, Oldfield School, Ralph Allen School, Royal High School, St Gregory’s Catholic College, St Marks School and Three Ways School.

Schools Voices has also been supported by The Andrew Lloyd Webber Foundation, The Trevor Osborne Charitable Trust and Bath Recreation.

Highlights of the rest of The Bath Festival include: iconic British music group Public Service Broadcasting, comedians Phil Wang Rachel Parris, Isy Suttie and Marcus Brigstocke, writers Ali Smith, Abdulrazak Gurnah and Marian Keyes, US pianist Jeremy Denk, the Bath Festival Orchestra, folk singer Karine Polwart, saxophonist Jess Gillam, journalists and broadcasters Martin Bell and Justin Webb, campaigners George Monbiot, Adam Rutherford and David Olusoga.