Huddersfield’s historic Mrs Sunderland music festival is moving into a new era.
In a bid to promote the 127-year-old event to a wider audience, the organisers are planning special workshops and performances.
Singers who want to join a mass choir and perform at the festival are invited to sign up now.
The Mrs Sunderland Festival, held every February, aims to “put performance of the arts first” and its first Workshop and Performance event will be a choral show based on The Armed Man, a piece by composer Sir Karl Jenkins.
The workshop will be led by Thom Meredith with the Kirklees Symphony Orchestra and will take place on Sunday February 21 in the concert hall at Huddersfield Town Hall.
A training session will run from 10am to 3.30pm followed by a performance in front of an audience at 4pm.
Numbers are limited by the size of the stage but it is expected there will be between 230 and 280 singers.
All voices are welcome and it is not necessary that singers have performed the work before.
The festival also plans to offer children’s workshops and the 2016 festival will include Sing Swing and Sign run by Thom Meredith and Paul Whittaker, founder of the charity Music and the Deaf.
The full syllabus for next year’s festival – held from February 18-27 – will be released at a launch event at Huddersfield Town Hall on September 16 (5pm-8.30pm).
Volunteers and sponsors are being sought.
To sign up for the Workshop and Performance or for more information go to www.mrssunderlandfestival.com
