Rehearsals in full swing for Whispering Woods 2012!

Chandeliers in the trees

Choir with paper light sculpture

Dancers and choir performing at pilot event

Choral director leads Whispering Woods choir

A mass participation choral project for a promenade audience, Whispering Woods brought together singers from across West Sussex in September 2012 to create a public music performance after dark in specially-lit woodland at Bignor Park in the Sussex landscape.

Whispering Woods was inspired by Laulupidu, the largest amateur choral event in the world which takes place in a forest amphitheatre in Estonia. The 50 minute programme was devised by Creative Producer Paul Ackerley to be accessible for every type of singing and ability and to include new commissions and premieres. Sussex-born, award-winning composer Lynne Plowman’s piece White Stars, Green Leaves was specially written for, and had its world premiere at, Whispering Woods. Iconic Bulgarian composer, Kyril Todorov’s piece, Goro Le, was commissioned for a pilot event in 2011 and re-performed, together with Australian composer, Sarah Hopkin’s hugely popular Honour The Earth.

Whispering Woods’ Music Director, Dessi Stephanova said ‘The overall theme of our repertoire is ‘elemental’ - linking our songs to the landscape in which we are singing, and drawing from polyphonic singing traditions from around the world.’

Dessi, a BBC Open Choir of the Year winner, led a talented team of choral leaders including other award winning and nationally regarded directors: Emily Barden (Chichester area), Jo Cornell and Kaytie Harding (Crawley and Horsham areas), Rebecca Askew (Shoreham and Worthing areas) and Jan Winstone, University of Chichester. The performance was enhanced by light installations from the Brighton arts company Same Sky and dance by University of Chichester Musical Theatre students.

Whispering Woods was part of the Ahead of the Game Cultural Programme in West Sussex, led by West Sussex Arts Partnership, with funding from Arts Council England.

In partnership with the South Downs National Park, Creatives Across Sussex hopes to develop this successful project into a wider series of urban and rural outdoor mass participation singing events – ‘Singing Streets’ and the National Festival of Singing in the Landscape.

View my website http://www.westsussex-aheadofthegame.com/page/culture/47/