Save the Sing for Freedom Choir! This remarkable choir builds community between local residents and refugees and asylum seekers who are survivors of torture. Help them to survive and perform again!
“One of the worst things about torture is that it silences you… the choir has given me back my voice”.
The Sing for Freedom choir sings from a shared love of music and to reclaim the voice that torture has so cruelly tried to silence. This amazing and unique choir was founded by Freedom from Torture, a charity offering therapeutic care to asylum seekers and refugees in the UK who have suffered torture.
SADLY THE CHARITY CAN NO LONGER AFFORD TO RUN THE CHOIR AND SINCE JULY 2018 REHEARSALS HAVE CEASED. PLEASE PLEDGE TO HELP US SAVE THE CHOIR.
Members are clients, staff and supporters of Freedom From Torture and local residents. From 2016-18 they met every week to share a love of singing, make friends, and sing for freedom. Wonderful links have formed across ages, nationalities, languages, and faiths and they have delighted audiences at numerous special performances . For many members, it has been a way to forget the terrible things they have endured and feel joy instead.
What we'll deliver
The choir will meet and rehearse again weekly, giving much needed therapy and happiness to the members
The choir will learn new songs, developing their musical skills and building their repertoire from around the world
Choir members will improve their language & intercultural skills and build friendships across difference
The choir will reach out to the local community, invite them to join and to attend performances
The choir will perform at Refugee Week 2019, inspiring others with their model of solidarity and support
Why it's a great idea
There are very significant therapeutic benefits to being in a choir - research has consistently shown that singing together with others: creates powerful social bonds reduces stress promotes feelings of wellbeing builds confidence improves language skills provides an antidote to isolation
Many members of the choir have been through horrendous experiences that few can imagine. They carry a huge burden of trauma and stress but the choir has been a healing lifeline, providing support and kinship.
One member from the Democratic Republic of the Congo describes how it has helped: "Its like my therapy. I'm happy to sing every time. When I wake up I sometimes feel lonely and sad, but on Wednesday I come in and see the choir and after that I'm happy, the stress is gone, all is better. So I can say that the choir is very important to my life".
The choir has built community and understanding between people who would not otherwise meet.
Steps to get it done
Choir members re-engaged and first term of rehearsals scheduled
Choir steering committee formed
New repertoire decided and mastered
First public performance at Refugee Week in July 2019
The Sing For Freedom choir deserves to be a permanent part of our community. It will enable all of us to better understand and engage with refugees and bring empathy and compassion to the plight of people who have been tortured.
Most of the choir members are living in dire poverty and the choir can help them interact with others and gain vital life skills.
Funding will enable the choir to meet regularly, attract new members, AND to achieve their ambition to perform as part of Refugee Week 2019. One member describes how it felt after their concert last year at the Barbican's Milton Court: “I’ve got it on my phone, I check it every night before I sleep. The end, the finish, it was amazing. We kept singing, even outside, it was amazing. That showed me how singing can bring people together and they will share one moment. The happiness. That time was really powerful for me. And when I watch my own video I keep smiling. I’m just happy!"
Location
Together Productions is a not for profit Comm...
Learn More
Together Productions is a not for profit Community Interest Company creating positive social change through the arts. Our projects build connections, understanding and community cohesion by uniting diverse and marginalised groups to work with one another to create high quality artistic outcomes. We specialise in work that is participatory, non-hierarchical and that challenges existing orthodoxies and paradigms. We seek to bring together individuals, communities and organisations who would otherwise never meet and through creative collaborations we build empathy, understanding and awareness.
Since 2017 we have been running Singing Our Lives, a collaborative composition and performance project that brings together displaced people, asylum seekers and locally born communities to compose and perform new music together.
Our flagship choir, the Mixed Up Chorusis an innovative, non-auditioned, intergenerational and intercultural community choir. The choir sings a global repertoire and seeks projects and collaborations that celebrate difference and give voice to under-represented groups. Our newest choir, Sing For Freedom, comprises refugees and asylum seekers who are survivors of torture, along with Londoners who have joined to sing in solidarity with them. Members participate in weekly rehearsals and hold performances reaching audiences of over 2000 people per annum, in lockdown this has increased as we have reached online audiences.
During lockdown we have taken our work online, running virtual rehearsals & projects and pioneering digital concerts reaching audiences around the world. In the Summer of 2020 we worked with partners Musicians Without Borders, I Speak Music and the International Organization of Migration amongst others to produce the Imagine: Imagineproject, involving hundreds of performers across 14 countries worldwide. This pioneering project resulted in a global music video and the establishment of new relationships and partnerships we are continuing to build.
The Project Owner takes legal responsibility for receiving and spending the funds raised and ensuring the project is delivered.
