Hands and Voices Choir <
Accessible Arts
The Melbourne Centre

The Hands & Voices Choir
Accessible Arts is probably better known for the Hands & Voices Choir (the first singing & signing choir ever!). The choir was set up in 1998 as an integrated community choir, who are renown for their forays into every genre of music from tribal to Opera and dabbling with a bit of Jazz and Hip Hop along the way! The choir has grown from an initial membership of 16 in 1998 to 50 in 2006, with an ever-increasing waiting list of members wanting to join the choir.

Signing is an integral aspect of the Choir, as the majority of Hands & Voices comprises of adults with learning disabilities. Signs used are derived from MAKATON and other signing/language programs, enabling people who may have difficulty expressing themselves vocally to communicate more easily.

Hands & Voices was so successful that the Hands & Voices Performance Programme quickly gained momentum. The choir has been referred to as ‘one of the most exciting choir’s to emerge from Yorkshire in recent years’ (Charles Hutchinson, York Press) and they have gained international acclaim for their high profile productions including:

The Beggar’s Opera 1995, A Midsummer Night’s Dream 1997, Go Down Moses 1998, Sleeping Beauty 1999 and Noah’s Opera 2000, Knights and Angels 2001, Ruff - Doublet and the Queen (An Elizabethan Romp!) in 2003, Changes 2004 and the first ever Viking Pantomime in 2005 A Funny Thing Happened on the way to the Thing.

The Hands & Voices Committee was set up in 2001, requested by members that wanted to get more involved in running the choir, which is now integral to its development. The committee was the driving force behind the first ever Workshop Leader Training Programme for musicians with learning difficulties – The Hands & Voices Training Programme. Since it was established in 2002 many workshops have taken place in schools, colleges and with community groups up and down the country, from the Royal Academy of Music, London and Manchester to Lealholm Primary School, North Yorkshire.

The programme provides a unique opportunity for trainees to make positive contributions to their communities, whilst at the same time promoting an extremely positive model of disability. Due to the overwhelming success of this training, the National Foundation for Youth Music has now adopted the model through its ‘tune-in’ and ‘Music Leader Yorkshire’ programmes and Cube Media has also based its SoundWeaver and Applefields School programmes on this model.

After attending a Hands & Voices workshop, one of the teachers had this to say:
“I was surprised to see how confident and skilled the trainers were and how well they worked with the children - a great positive feeling to be a part of. I can recommend this for all schools.”

For even more info, check out the Hands and Voice myspace site: http://www.myspace.com/handsandvoices 

Supported by:
The City of York Council,
Rix, Thompson and Rotherburg Foundation, D’Oyly Carte Charitable Trust,
Lloyds TSB Foundation, Joseph Rowntree Foundation (York Applications),
The Key Fund, Donald and Patricia Shepherd Charitable Trust,
York Common Good Fund, Purey Cust Trust and The Norman Collinson Trust.