Bath Sing For Lif

MUSIC, MUSIC, MUSIC AND MUCH MORE

WITH two hugely successful one-night Bath Showcase concerts under his belt, raising over £30,000 for local community groups, West Country music man Grenville Jones is extending his successful May Showcase formula in the City of Bath to a four-day feast of choral music in 2009.

Alongside the new format is a new title, Bath Sing for Life 2009, with a target of £45,000, which will be divided between three of Bath’s best loved charities – Dorothy House Hospice Care, the Golden-Oldies Charitable Trust and the Forever Friends NICU appeal – see below.

Bath Sing for Life will run from Friday May 1st to Bank Holiday Monday May 4th next year with a programme which will involve hundreds of local people and bring many thousands of visitors to the City.

Taking part will be many of Bath’s popular music groups, young people and students with music, music, music from Friday evening May 1st to Bank Holiday Monday May 4th 2009.

On the evening of Friday May 1st, concerts in five city churches will feature ten local choirs - from classic choral to glorious gospel – marking a rousing start to Sing for Life 2009.

On Saturday there will be a Buskers’ Bonanza in the streets of Bath, as well as music students performing ‘free to watch and enjoy’ performances in a number of city venues. Also on Saturday May 2nd top choral conductor Mike Brewer OBE, will lead a World Music workshop at the Bath Forum with hundreds of young people taking part. This will culminate in a concert that Saturday evening.

Also on Saturday there will be a prestigious choral concert in the wonderful setting of Bath Abbey featuring the renowned Rodolfus choir and, on Sunday morning, organiser Grenville Jones is hoping that churches across the city will welcome visiting choirs to perform as part of their worship.

On Sunday evening, jazz and swing will be the theme for a top name gig at The Pavilion featuring Bath’s own jazz star Clare Teal alongside Grenville’s fabulous Stockingtop singing group.

Finally – linking up with the Spring Bank Holiday Flower Show in Victoria Park – a free entry family picnic around the bandstand in the afternoon, and lots more!

All in all, a weekend for local people to enjoy and visitors to savour, that’s Bath Sing for Life 2009 and a date to circle in your diary- Friday May 1st to Bank Holiday Monday May 4th. Bath Sing for Life will support three of the areas leading charities.

Dorothy House Hospice Care offers physical, psychological, social and spiritual care to patients with life-threatening illnesses, and their families. Every day, Dorothy House helps 840 families in Bath, north and west Wiltshire and parts of Somerset.

Care is mainly provided in people’s homes, because most of our patients prefer to be at home, with their families and in familiar surroundings. However, short-term care, out-patient and day patient services are provided at the hospice in Winsley – and some people spend the last few days of their lives in the in-patient unit.

Dorothy House is the only charity in the area providing free specialist nursing care at home for people with life-threatening illness. Such a comprehensive service is costly, and as Dorothy House receives only 40 per cent of its funding from the NHS we have to raise £2.5 million a year to continue providing services at their current level – that’s more than £7,000 a day. The vast majority of the hospice’s income – 81 per cent – is spent directly on patient care.

The hospice depends on the generosity of local people to make donations, hold events, take part in sponsored challenges, support the charity shops or leave a legacy.
You can find out more about the work of Dorothy House at
www.dorothyhouse.co.uk

The Forever Friends Appeal is raising funds for state-of-the-art medical equipment and facilities, over and above that provided by the NHS for the Royal United Hospital. Walking into our Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) can feel like stepping onto another planet - the environment is probably unlike anything you've experienced.

The unit is often busy, with lots of activity, people moving around, and loud beeping monitors - and above all, the unit is extremely cramped making the care of our tiny babies particularly challenging.
For the NICU here at the Royal United Hospital, this is only part of the story, which is why The Forever Friends Appeal is raising £4.7 million towards a new NICU that will be the first of a new generation of therapeutic healthcare buildings.

Bath NICU is now committed to making an even more significant and positive difference to the care of premature babies by placing the exemplary clinical and developmental care of them and their families at the centre of our work – making it a beacon for neonatal care in the UK.
www.foreverfriendsappeal.co.uk

Golden-Oldies is a Registered Charity that is based in Bath & North East Somerset. It was launched in January 2008 with the pilot scheme in this area and attracted considerable media attention, being featured on local media and, early in January, on the BBC national 6 O’Clock News, the BBC World Service and News24, thus reaching a world-wide audience. Golden-Oldies recognizes the fact that there are many thousands of lonely elderly people residing in the United Kingdom and the base of the charity’s work is to forge links with housing associations, local authorities and community groups, to establish regular singing sessions which will be open to anyone aged around 50 and over.
The music at these sessions will be the “Golden Oldies”, those popular hits of the 50s, 60s and 70s, all sessions use the same music. The emphasis is on fun, friendship and the well-documented healthy exercise of singing.

But this is more than community singing. Golden-Oldies is already bringing a new interest into the lives of hundreds of elderly folk a reason to get up in the morning, something to aim at. The Golden-Oldies ethos is to give enjoyment, companionship and friendship through music.

As Golden-Oldies grows, each area will host its own major annual concert. The “Goldies” will also come together to perform at additional BIG SING concerts. Volunteers will be encouraged to become involved and the social programme will include excursions and visits to other Goldie sessions. Fast growing in this area, the demands are now to extend the Goldies ethos across the UK and put more smiles on more faces.
www.golden-oldies.org.uk