Community Spirit is B:Music’s mass singing programme that culminates each year with a July performance by the participating choirs at Symphony Hall in Birmingham.

Since 2009, this initiative has brought together Birmingham’s diverse communities to celebrate the City; to enhance social inclusion, connectedness and friendships; to support local residents’ skills development and self-confidence; and to increase positivity and wellbeing.
 
Significant research has been undertaken on the benefits of singing. Every culture has singing at the heart of community music-making, as it is an instinctive activity for all humans and has been closely linked with social belonging and a sense of social unity. Singing together improves wellbeing, inspires confidence and reduces feelings of isolation, while performing to an audience can also encourage a sense of personal worth.

Community Spirit Showcase 2022 took place at Birmingham's Symphony Hall on 10th July. The showcase featured 750 individuals from local choirs.

Community Spirit is an inclusive project that welcomes the participation of singers of all ages, abilities, backgrounds and needs. The 2022 showcase included: Black Voices (leading female A Cappella ensemble); B positive Choir (people with sickle cell disorder); Birmingham Community Gospel Choir (2015 BBC Songs of Praise Choir of the Year); Brandhall Community Choir (Oldbury); Halas Homes Sing and Sign Choir (people with learning disabilities from Halesowen); In Sound Company (Stourbridge open-acess community choir); Lichfield Gospel Choir; Northfield Notes Community Choir; Solihull Pop Voices Community Choir; Birmingham Reggae Choir, Town Hall Gospel Choir (Inaugural Songs of Praise Gospel Choir of the year); and Walsall's Voices Entwined Community Choir.

The repertoire was chosen and practiced by choirs (separately and together) and included "We Rise" by Ken Burton.

The main successes of this project were that the event brought together diverse choirs from diverse backgrounds, genres and abilities; all the choirs were able to learn from each other; and importantly our particpants survey reported improved wellbeing and mental health for those who took part.

Each year we evaluate feedback and we look forward to planning fresh and improved Community Spirit projects for the future. 
 

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For more information, please see:
www.bmusic.co.uk/make-music/community-groups/community-spirit