On Tuesday 21st April, I visited the Royal Albert Hall in central London, to perform with the 1500 voice mass choir at the Merton Music Foundation’s “Music is for Life” concert 2015. Amidst the 70th anniversary celebrations in 2015 marking the end of World War II, young people in Merton have given much creative consideration to what this means in human terms. Their thoughts are reflected through a diversity of music making and storytelling including a 1,250 voice all age choir, 250 strong concert band, jazz orchestra, massed strings, guitars and percussion ensemble, and a special school orchestra celebrating the work of young musicians from across the disability spectrum.

Some of the highlights of the concert included Radio Retro, a new jazz suite by Pete Letanka for Merton Youth Jazz Orchestra, tracking eight decades of popular hits from the 1940s to the present day. The concert finale featured the world premiere of Backstories, which explores the challenges and joyful rewards of intergenerational communication through an innovative music and drama commission, according to the Royal Albert Hall’s website.

The Ursuline High School Sixth Form choir who have worked with MMF and students from other schools as part of a collective called “Groovement”, performed at the event and started the evening off with a powerful and stunning performance of “You’re the Voice” with solos from three Ursuline students seen above. According to John Mander, Merton Music Foundation’s chief executive the performance 'lifted the roof!"  Ursuline Sixth Form students performed alongside the Wimbledon Community Chorus, Inspire Choir and the parents' choir from Holy Trinity CofE Primary School and the Merton Youth Jazz Orchestra. The big finale of the show ended with a rousing performance of “Gather and Sing” by all the 1500 singers together, and balloons fell from the ceiling.

Soo Bishop, one of the people who organised the event and taught us all the songs has been nominated for a Merton Civic Award for her amazing dedication to the project and her sense of humour and patience dealing with over 1000 children and young people. Soo is officially the programme’s director of the MMF (Merton Music Foundation), and she has been working with children and young people in the borough of Merton from September 2014 until April 2015 to ensure that as many young people as possible are given the opportunity to sing, dance, play instruments and engage with music, in a way that encourages to enjoy themselves and enrich their minds and understanding of the world and other cultures. “It was an amazing and fun experience” said one of the students involved in the production.

Anastasia Sutton

Ursuline High School