International Voices is part of the Youth Music Voices project, Youth Music’s contribution to the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad.

For International Voices, Youth Music, the British Council, Sing Up and ContinYou are developing a singing based project that brings schools and artists in the UK together with schools and artists in other countries. The project draws on the inspiration of the Olympics and the composers and artists working with Youth Music Voices. By working with the British Council to build the project into international school partnerships, the project internationalises the highly successful cluster programme that Sing Up has already been running in England.

International Voices will generate singing projects involving clusters of schools across all five continents and their partner schools in England. During the first pilot year in 2010-11, five clusters of schools in England will be paired with five school clusters in other countries. Each English cluster will comprise one secondary school and five primary schools, whilst the model may differ for the international clusters. Sing Up will solicit applications from schools in England through the Sing Up Area Leader network and the British Council will recruit schools in the partner countries.

Participating clusters of schools will receive a grant to help them develop their singing project and will be invited to a training event delivered by the British Council, Youth Music and Sing Up. They will have access to Sing Up vocal animateurs, the Youth Music Voices Artistic Director and a pool of artists. They will also have use of a specially commissioned repertoire and a comprehensive themed resource pack which draws on Olympic values, as well as access to online fora and learning opportunities. Some teachers and students may be able to travel to their international partner schools and there may also be performance opportunities as part of the Cultural Olympiad.

If the pilot is successful, we aim to expand it to the other UK nations from 2011.