Education & Outreach
In tandem with their performances, The Telling presents education and outreach projects for the public and, in partnership with animateur Sarah Atter, in schools and within local communities across the UK.
Songs & Stories Project with Refugees and Migrants
inspired by Into the Melting Pot
In January 2024, we presented a Songs and Stories project inspired by the story of our show Into the Melting Pot where a Jewish woman is being forced to leave Spain in 1492. Animateur Sarah Atter worked with a group at the Wolverhampton Refugee and Migrant Centre to create a piece of music that represented their or their family's journey to the UK. The project concluded with a performance of the piece in front of 60+ members of the rest of the RMC community.
"I was in a state of depression before coming to the workshops, but after engaging with you in the stories and songs, I felt better. Thank you for this beautiful charitable work. I wish success to everyone.”
Participant feedback
"It helped with reframing the mind and eventually it created hope and empowerment. It helped with integration and building connections"
Participant feedback
Thank you to Arts Council England, The Shoresh Charitable Trust, The Victoria Wood Foundation, The James Beattie Charitable Trust and The Grimmitt Trust for supporting this project.
We look forward to bringing this project to Manchester in May 2024 and Birmingham in late 2025.
Workshops in Schools
In 2023 and 2024, Sarah Atter worked with a primary school and secondary school in Cumbria and a primary school in Wolverhampton to deliver a composition project inspired by Beatriz de Dia in Unsung Heroine. The students worked in groups to create their own songs and the project culminated in a performance in front of their peers and parents.
"allowing the children to express themselves through songs and lyrics is something not often offered but is important in their emotional development"
- Primary school teacher
Plus, musicians of The Telling visited primary schools in Cumbria and Conwy during their December 2023 Carol tour to teach pupils how to sing some carols and about their surprising history.
Thanks to The Hadfield Trust, The W E Dunn Trust, The Grimmitt Trust and The James Beattie Charitable Trust for supporting these projects.
Public Workshops
Ahead of some performances throughout the year, The Telling presents singing and instrumental workshops to allow members of the audience to learn some of the pieces ahead of the show. Participants are then invited on stage at the beginning of the second half of the show to perform what they have learnt in front of the rest of the audience.
Since the beginning of the first COVID-19 lockdown in March 2020, The Telling has been delivering online singing workshops. For over a year, they offered singing workshops every Friday morning, welcoming over 70 participants at its height in Summer 2020. In recent years, The Telling has presented one-off online workshops ahead of tours, as well as carol singing workshop series over 3-4 weeks every year.
“Yesterday I found myself in tears as I realised it was the first time in many years I'd actually been able to sing a carol.... thanks to our weekly half hours, my voice is beginning to come back. There have been few benefits of CV-19, but your Zoom singing sessions have been one”
- Singing Workshop Participant
