Community Choirs in West Cork led by Caz Jeffreys
For more than twenty
years I’ve been working with a cross section of the community, leading music
workshops and also with my involvement in community events. Most of my work has
been with the setting up and on-going running of community choirs and vocal
performance groups in my own area of West Cork. Performance has taken my work
into events such as the Cork International Choral Festival, Ballydehob Jazz
Festival and also in collaboration with visiting choirs from abroad. I love to
travel and meet new communities and so from time to time my work takes me further
afield.
Singing for community wellbeing
Since graduating from the MA in Community Music course at the University of Limerick, I
have sought opportunities to broaden my experience in working with the different
groups within the community with who I have had less contact. This has taken me
into a wider section of health care settings as well as working with children
and young adults.
In 2015 I was invited
by the West Cork Mental Health Services to get involved in a new festival in my
area dedicated to promote community wellbeing, and so my long standing desire
to bring many voices together to sing a common repertoire found its’ platform
in the culmination of a ‘BIG SING!’ However as soon as the event was over it
was apparent that this was much more than a one-off event and that a new project
had been born, bringing together much of my work and personal desires – a
project bringing all walks of life together in song for the mutual benefit of the
individual and wider community.
And so the West Cork
BIG SING! - ‘Singing for Community Wellbeing’ project was born.
In this project I
work with local choirs, community groups and individuals through teaching a
common repertoire of songs at workshops and through collaborations. The songs
chosen are a mixture of popular and the unknown, some from other countries and
walks of life, some I have written and some written as a group effort for the
event. They are all chosen with the consideration for suitability of the lyrics...
to be acceptable to all age groups and ethical backgrounds, and to have a
meaningful message. So far this has brought me working with groups such as
Co-Action, the National Learning Network, the COPE Foundation and secondary
schools. Members of eight local choirs have also engaged and in many ways have
become quite the backbone of the singing, providing vocal strength and support to
the rest of the community at the BIG SING! events. Two such events have taken
place so far at local community festivals and we are preparing now for the third
to mark Mental Health Week 2016 in Bantry.
This time I have
taken the project another step further by involving a brass section and
drumming group made up of individuals who were inspired to work with me on the
project. Their music will be arranged and interwoven within the songs....we
will see how this experiment turns out! I think involving local community music
groups in the project could prove to be inspiring and rewarding in many ways.
Take a look at this
short video which really helps to portray what this event is at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4I7bU-AqeLk
Kinsale Voices – Kinsale, Cork, Ireland
KINSALE VOICES is a group of enthusiastic, local people who enjoy group singing without musical accompaniment (acappella style). We enjoy preparing songs for performance and taking them out into the local community. We meet weekly on Mondays from 7.30pm – 9.30pm in the Blue Haven Cafe singing in a variety of styles and genres.
https://www.facebook.com/KinsaleVoices?ref=tn_tnmn
AcapellaBella – Ballydehob, West Cork, Ireland
ACAPELLABELLA began in 2003 and has reached out having sister branches in both Clonakilty and Kinsale over the years. We currently meet in the side room of Ballydehob Community Hall on Thursdays from 8pm-10pm and new members are welcome all year round. The styles and genres we sing vary from term to term.
https://www.facebook.com/acapellabella?fref=ts
Ceol Na Laoi – Ballincollig Community Choir, Cork, Ireland
An inclusive new choir which is open to everyone in the community. We aim to provide a relaxed space for people to explore the simple pleasures of singing together. The songs we sing include both the familiar and the new, and we also like to explore songs from different countries.
We meet on Tuesdays 7- 9pm in Coaliste Cholilm School, Ballincollig.
I welcome
collaborations, meeting and sharing musical opportunities and experiences with
others and would be delighted to bring more of my work out to more areas. If
you would like to explore any possibilities and discuss options for working
with me please feel free to get in touch.
You can find out more
about Caz’s work and projects by visiting her website at: www.cazjeffreys.com
Join her and sign up
to newsletters on her ‘Caz Jeffreys Music’ facebook page for regular updates
and items of interest at: https://www.facebook.com/cazjeffreysmusic/
Call her on:083
1425599 or get in touch by email at cazjeffreys@gmail.com