Blog

The Birmingham Cantata project

June 29th 2026 was an amazing day for me. I had the thrill of conducting a choir of 500 children at the wonderful concert venue of Birmingham Symphony hall. 10 schools had come together for the first time, after a series of workshops and individual rehearsals, to tell the story of how Birmingham changed from being the settling place of a small group of nomadic wanderers, to the 'Power House of the World'. It was an extravagant celebration of creativity, imagination and collaboration - an exhilerating and moving event that I will never forget!

What inspired the Cantata in the first place? #

The Birmingham Cantata was written as a class project by Keith Farr and the students of Hillstone Primary School, Shard End, Birmingham. He wanted his class to understand more about the heritage of the city they lived in and to be proud of the way Birmingham had inspired and led parts of the Industrial Revolution through the innovations of particular people like William Murdoch, Matthew Bolton and James Watt. By using the information and material that the class researched and compiled, the Cantata emerged - a collection of 14 songs and short sketches.

Why did I get involved? #

Having lived in Birmingham for over 30 years and through my years of teaching as a vocal coach and choir leader in the primary schools across the city, I have grown to love the city and the children and people here. I was thrilled to be asked by Keith to take part and be the musical director for this project.
Initially I recorded all of the vocal tracks for the schools so that they could start to learn them in their classrooms and get familiar with the melodies and lyrics. From the very outset, I knew that the kids would love their catchy tunes and rhythms - I couldn't stop singing them myself and was instantly excited to be going into the different schools to support the children. I listened to the songs whenever I did my short cycling workouts at home, just to make sure I knew them inside out!

In the Spring and Summer terms, Keith and I went round the different schools and classes and led workshops with the children and teachers. It was wonderful to see the effort that everyone had made to get the children involved and singing. We had great fun going over actions and putting the parts together for the different songs.

The Lunar Society #

You couldn't have a story about Birmingham's industrial development without a mention of the Lunar Society. The discussions of scientists and philosophers who met once a month in the original Lunar Society were hugely influential and made a great impact on the way industry developed. We were so glad that representatives from the modern day Lunar Society could be with us at the performance, and they wrote the following as part of a longer piece for our programme:

The 4Ward Birmingham Cantata reflects the values that defined the original Lunar Society – collaboration, togetherness, persistence and innovation – while expressing them through music, dance and storytelling. To see that legacy brought to life by hundreds of children, performing in such an artistic and creative way, is genuinely exciting.
We are incredibly grateful to Keith Farr, Creative Connections, Birmingham Royal Ballet and all of the schools and school children involved for providing this platform, helping to inspire a new generation and ensuring that the Lunar spirit continues to thrive in Birmingham today

What were the best bits? #

But one of the best things for me was that we were able to share how these individual people from history had used thair talents, many of them as young children, and through persevering and experimenting, had created inventions that changed the course, not only of Birmingham's life as a city, but of the world. I felt so privileged to be able to use these examples and, through Keith's songs, be able to share with the children how they can also use their unique skills and ideas to make a difference.

One of the songs particularly focused on the spirit of Birmingham, encompassing not only this innovative and creative spirit, but also the way Birmingham has welcomed people from all over the world and is now the vibrant, multi-cultural and diverse city that it is today. I found it incredibly moving to be singing these songs, within the context of Birmingham school communities where the pupils and staff come from all around the world.

More about Creative Connections Network #

This is what they say about themselves: The project was funded by Creative Connections Network, a consortium of eleven, like-minded Birmingham schools who have come together over the last ten years with an agenda to maintain the Arts as a high priority in our schools. Despite a full curriculum, we endeavour to offer creative opportunities for our community, working with Arts partners such as National Theatre and Ikon Gallery and experiencing exciting venues in our city. It is important to us that every child in a year group participates - inclusivity is vital.

The Birmingham Cantata was their most ambitious project yet, with 10 schools taking part and with over 500 children involved ranging from year 1 to year 5 (6-10 year olds). In this year's Birmingham Cantata project, we also partnered with the amazing team led by Jenny Murphy at the Birmingham Royal Ballet. They also worked with the children over 2 terms to devise set dances, with original music composed by Andrew Kristy.

The concert day was a wonderful celebration of hard work, imagination and creativity. We finally brought all the schools together to sing the songs and dances, with one morning rehearsal before the final concert.

Of course the children surpassed all our expectations and produced a colourful, engaging and uplifting performance.

I'm so glad I was involved!