Suzi becomes Cosmos Choir?s first ever Patron!
February 27th, 2012
St George’s Bristol is delighted to announce that Suzi Digby has accepted the newly created role of Patron of Cosmos Choir – a young community choir of children aged 8 – 12 from Knowle West and district, supported and funded through St George’s education programme.
Suzi Digby, judge on the BBC’s immensely popular ‘Last Choir Standing’, is a well-known face in the world of music education, having worked internationally with children’s and adult choirs for many years. She is Founder and Principal of The Voices Foundation, the UK’s leading music education foundation that successfully tasks itself with ‘transforming children through singing’, and last year founded Vocal Futures, launched to inspire a new generation of classical music followers. Suzi was awarded an OBE in 2007 in recognition of her outstanding services to music education.
This appointment is a tremendous boost for the Cosmos Choir, in this its fourth year of existence. Directed by Bristol-based music educators Laurie Stewart and Mark Lawrence, Cosmos is living proof that singing is something we can all enjoy, be inspired by and develop through, regardless of our social, cultural or economic background. To date, over 150 young people in Knowle West and district have grown through the experience of singing in Cosmos. Last year alone the choir sang three times at St George?s, as well as at the Colston Hall (‘A World Beyond’) and Bristol’s Harbourside (‘Sing for WaterAid’), and took part in Song-Shares in Southville (South Bank Arts Trail) and in Withywood, South Bristol. Praised for the ‘fresh enthusiasm’ that comes across in its sound, Cosmos has made three recordings to date for Faber Music for the Sing Up website.
Cosmos is St George’s own small contribution to transforming children through singing, and Suzi’s endorsement of this makes us all the more determined to carry on raising the much- needed funds to enable this invaluable resource to continue for years to come.
