The Norfolk & Norwich Festival is seeking singers from around the region to join Bigger Sky, a 100-strong choral project that was launched in 2004. Bigger Sky will be formed in collaboration with local choir, Big Sky and is an opportunity for anyone who loves to sing to get involved in a project that will help develop their voice, and give them a chance to perform in Norwich Cathedral. "Bigger Sky is all about opportunity and is open to anyone above the age of 14 who wants to sing, regardless of whether they can read music or not," said choir director Sian Croose. "If you've always dreamed of singing, but never had the confidence, we will work with you to change that," she added. The choir will be performing a new choral work from composer Richard Chew, commissioned for the Festival. "I've written a piece called Lifelines, which is a small sequence of poems based on observations of life, drawn from the writings of ancient philosophers," he said.
 | | Stained glass at Norwich Cathedral |
"For me, a poem has to let music in, so usually we're looking at something with very few words, where the image is very distilled. "I find those kind of poems easier to set to music as you've got space to do what you do as a musician. "It's a very delicate piece, based on models of choral music from America, particularly Shaker music and Shaker note songs. "I've just written a large orchestral work with chorus and soloist about the Mostar Bridge and I wanted to do something very different for this. In a way something much cleaner, quite sparse in many ways. "The harmonies will be quite clear, very open choral writing. It's a meditative piece, not at all whizz bang," he added. The Norfolk and Norwich Festival has a long tradition of choral music which dates back to 1772. "The Festival has such a strong choral tradition... it's great to keep this alive as the Festival programme develops with time," said festival marketing manager Rachael Murray. "We're excited to once again be able to offer the public a chance to perform new works that have never been heard before," she added. Anyone interested in joining the Bigger Sky choir can join a taster session costing £5 at The Friends Meeting House, Upper Goat Lane, Norwich at 7.30pm on Thursday 24 February, 2005. | 
