Newcastle Choir DayHampus Elinder19-Oct-2014Together with:

Overview

• Newcastle From a Music Perspective

• Proposed event

• Benefits of practising music and singing in choir

• The Newcastle Choir Scene

• Colaboration with the University of Newcastle

• Potential of internet

• Program and Date

• Advertising and Media

• Conclusions

• Refferences

Identifying Newcastle from a Music Perspective

Newcastle is big city including a population with varied preferences. In order to appeal to as many as possible, the following points have been identified as critical in order to create a good event:

• Appeal to all age groups• Integrate different music genres from different cultures• Be easily accessible by everyone• Free• Offer different activities

Proposed event

Newcastle Choir Day

A whole day with workshops, performances, sing-along and finish with a big concert with the goalto promote choral music and activities

In the following slides the positive aspects of practising choir, and thus the importance of broadening the scene, as well as how the event will take place, advertise itself and function will be explained.

Benefits from Practising Music

Involvement in music has been proved to help physical and psycological as well as social problems such as:• Stress • Depression• Heart rate• Academic results• Allows for self-expression• Mood enhancement• Creates a sense of belonging• Builds bridges between cultures

Therefore the goal of the event is to involve, as well as entertain, the audience

Positive Effects of Choir

Choir is practised as a group. Therefore, in addition to all the good aspects achieved through practising music can be found in choir, social benefits and bonding attained through working as a group will be achieved.

Presentation from Tedx Talks about positive effects of singing and participating in a choir

Positive Effects of Choir – the Multicultural Aspect

Since singing together is practised every society, a choir makes an excellent bridge between cultures.

A choir is a good place to meet people from other cultures – reducing racism and misunderstandings

Singing music from other cultures broadens our general knowledge and cultural diversity

Main theme from a video game called Civilization containing musical influences from multiple parts of the world

Possibilities of Choral music – different genres

Choral music has the amazing capability of mixing genres, creating a diversity rarely found anywhere else.

This allows choral music to act as a bridge between subcultures rather that being a subculture itself.

Example of how choral music can reflect different genres

Newcastle’s Choir Scene Today

Today the official Newcastle choir scene consist of around five choirs and a capella groups.

While the scene is small, broadening and developing it will not be as hard as for other subcultures and scenes since (as explained in previous slides):• Choir can implements all music genres and can thus appeal to everyone• Participating is a social practise, enabling social factors to work as a

motive• Does not differ between age groups, disability or ethnicity allowing many

different people to participate together

Officiall (or easily found) choirs and vocal groups in Newcastle

Importance of Broadening Newcastle’s Choir Scene

As explained before, practising music has an overall personal and social positive effect

Pursuing a broadening of the scene will benefit the whole society as well as broadening its the cultural aspect improving relations between different groups in the society otherwise without means to interact

However, a push in the right direction is necessary, thus the importance of Newcastle Choir Day.

Collaboration with the University of Newcaslte

The event is to be held together with the University of Newcastle to obtain the following advantages:• As the second biggest single

employer in Newcastle, it is a central Hub and has relation to most people in the Hunter Area

• Access to an international community from more than 80 countries

• Includes all attractive age groups for the event

• Ensures easy distribution of information

Local Management and Accommodation

Working with the University of Newcastle allows for use of the Conservatorium. This means:• Accommodation for the whole event in

one place• Central and easily accessible location• Free of use → No Entry• Proper equipment• Close relation to qualified staff and

students

Potential of Internet

While the potential to broadcast the event is great, consideration regarding which parts to show must be made so that people still comes in person.

• Information, teasers and master classes will be available online.

• Main events will only be “IRL” to force people to come and preserve the special live performance feeling

Program and Date

The event is to be held over one day: Saturday the 29’th of November

The thought behind this is that it is after the exams of the university students, but before many of them leaves for the summer holidays.

It is also a weekend allowing the working-part population to attend

Furthermore, keeping it to one day makes it an easy go-to event that do not require too much of people’s time

Program and Date

The program will consist of different workshops with focus on:

• Teamwork and the positive aspects to sing together

• Choral adaption of different genres

• Master classes (both with individual singers and the Unieversity choir Echology), some by teachers abroad, coaching through internet calls. These will also be viewable via internet

• streams

• Singing

Food and Beverage will also be available for purchase

Program and Date

The main event will be the concert ending the day taking place in the great hall. The concert will feature the University’s own chamber choir: the well renown Echology. They will combine everything the event has been about: • Socialization• Cultural diversity• Positive aspects of singing• And more

The concert will offer:• Music from different cultures and genres• Sing along with the audience• A fun, joyful and unforgettable evening

A small taster of what echology has to offer

Advertisement and Media

To reach as many potential participants as possible we will make use of the University’s and Conservatorium’s mail lists.

On top of that, social medias (such as Facebook and twitter), advertising in local papers and radio channels as well entering Newcastle’s event calendar, will be used.

Link to Newcastle’s event calendar: http://www.newcastle.nsw.gov.au/about_newcastle/events/events_calendar/events

Advertisement and Media

It is important to appeal to the whole community. To do this, two age groups plus people’s diverse taste have been identified as targets for advertisement.

• The diversity of choral music opens the event to all• subcultures

• Young people tend to get drawn by music the like• – contemporary and mainstream music will secure • this.

• Older people are more motivated by potential socialization, which choir covers perfectly

• The event being free and drop in is always appreciated

Conclusions

Why Newcastle Choir Day is so important:• Practising music generates positive social and personal effects

• Doing this with a choir also adds social benefits

• The whole of Newcastle will benefit from Newcastle Choir Day through a more cultural, healthy and happy community.

References

Author’s notes regarding references:Since it is so hard to implement references in a PowerPoint and still make it look good, I have chosen to remove all references in the actual presentation. This, however, does not mean that the information presented is not correct or based on research. Because it is hard for the reader to scan everything from the reference list and figure out him/herself what facts comes from where, I will briefly explain the most important references and their impacthere:• The critical points identified as critical for a good event is based on Gelder and

Robinson’s article (2010) on motives for attending festivals. Consideration of their recommendations has also been made.

• The positive effects of music upon personal and social health comes from multiple sources (listed under references) but have a foundation in Packer and Ballantyne’s article (2010) when they refer to positive effects when practicing music.

• Inspiration to the internet related parts come from Holt’s article (2010) “The economy of live music in the digital age”. The point he made that live performances, the relation between the performer and audience, means something extra has made me make extra effort to ensure as much face-to-face encounter’s as possible, while allowing some of the parts to be accesible internet

References

• Gelder, Gemma, and Peter Robinson. "A Critical Comparative Study of Visitor Motivations for Attending Music Festivals: A Case Study of Glastonbury and V Festival." Event Management 13 (2009): 181-96. Web. 19 Oct. 2014.

• Packer, Jan, and Julie Ballantyne. "The Impact of Music Festival Attendance on Young People's Psychological and Social Well-being." SAGE, 1 Oct. 2010. Web. 19 Oct. 2014.

• Holt, F. "The Economy of Live Music in the Digital Age." European Journal of Cultural Studies (2010): 243-61. SAGE. Web. 19 Oct. 2014.

• Duffy, Michael. "Newcastle or Bust." The Sydney Morning Herald. 10 Apr. 2009. Web. 19 Oct. 2014.• Horn, Stacy. "Singing Changes Your Brain | TIME.com." Ideas Singing Changes Your Brain Comments. 16 Aug.

2013. Web. 19 Oct. 2014.• Choir Research. Creativity Australia. Web. 19 Oct. 2014. <http://www.creativityaustralia.org.au/research/choir-

research/>.• Clift, Stephen, and Grenville Hancox. "The Significance of Choral Singing for Sustaining Psychological Wellbeing:

Findings from a Survey of Choristers in England, Australia and Germany." 1 Jan. 2010. Web. 19 Oct. 2014.• "The Chorus Impact Study: How Children, Adults, and Communities Benefit from Choruses." Chorus America, 1

Jan. 2009. Web. 19 Oct. 2014.• All Events. The City of Newcastle, 10 Sept. 2014. Web. 19 Oct. 2014.

<http://www.newcastle.nsw.gov.au/about_newcastle/events/events_calendar/events>.• Choirs and Groups in NSW. Acappella Central. Web. 19 Oct. 2014.

<http://acappellacentral.com.au/choirsearch/NSW>.

Video URL

Since slideshare could not show embedded videos, I will post the url’s here:

First video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_HOBr8H9EM Second video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A4Pxc-iW5wMThird video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7AORLLrovM&feature=player_embeddedFourth video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvzVDh8jByY&feature=player_embedded