The European cooperation project Uniting Youth in Song (July 2009 to June 2011) ended with an intensive programme in Swedn on the weekend May 27th to 29th 2011 with Länsmusiken - Swicco staging a number of events in Örebro:

- an international conducting course for children's choir conductors

  with Kari Ala-Pöllänen, Anne-Marie Cabut and the Cigale de Lyon

  (some pictures >> here)

- a Hearts-in-Harmony concert with hearing-impaired young people

  (some pictures >> here / more about Hearts-in-Harmony >> here)

- a concert of the Örebro Integration choir

   (some pictures >> here)

In addition the partners met in a steering group meeting to evaluate the project and discuss future cooperation.

“Uniting Youth in Song” was a European cooperation project coordinated by Länsmusiken - SWICCO in Örebro (Sweden) in cooperation with FENIARCO (Italy), SCIC (Catalonia, Spain), KÓTA  and the Central-Eastern European Centre (Hungary), the festival EUROPA CANTAT Utrecht (the Netherlands) and Europa Cantat (since 2011: European Choral Association - Europa Cantat) in Bonn (Germany). The project was supported by the European Union under the Culture Programme 2007 - 2013.

The project intended to address the main worries and challenges of the choral world today, aiming mostly at increasing awareness for the importance of singing with children, promoting active music-making in kindergartens and schools as well as intercultural dialogue and life-long learning and increasing and improving training programmes for children’s and youth choir conductors.

Activities from 2009 to 2011 through which these aims have been reached include the Conference on Singing and Music Education in Vilnius, activities at the festival EUROPA CANTAT in Utrecht, conducting courses in Fano and Örebro, a seminar for composers in Aosta, Hearts-in-Harmony events in Budapest, Barcelona and Örebro, the setting up of an integration choir in Örebro, a performance of the Poverty Requiem and the festival “Youth Choirs in Movement" 2 in Bonn and online databases with research on the benefits of singing and examples of good practice.

More information on Unting Youth in Song can be found on www.swicco.se and >> here