Community Voiceworks

Gitika Partington is a singer, songwriter, arranger, and workshop leader. She runs two large community choirs - The Bishopsgate Singers and The Tubthumping Chorus in the City of London - and a Primary school choir in Camden, as well as training days for local music education authorities (training teachers and community-choir leaders), a cappella workshops, and singing festivals for adults, students, and families. She has co-written two musicals for children and arranged a wide variety of songs for a cappella SATB choir, several of which are featured in her Sing Pop A Cappella (Novello), and written song commissions for Sing Up!, including the 2015 National Sing Up Day song. Gitika holds an MA in Choral Education from the University of Surrey, Roehampton, and is a Licentiate of the Guildhall School of Music & Drama (jazz vocals and arranging). She taught secondary school music for 12 years, and is a member of the Natural Voice Practitioner Network and the band 3 Bucket Jones.Alison Burns is a songwriter, arranger, and music educator. Her songs can be heard in diverse settings such as public art installations, theatre, mainstream and special needs education, and in the repertoire and recordings of many community choirs around Britain and the USA. She has published several collections including two songbooks for schools, and several of her songs are part of the Sing Up! website's song bank and were specially featured in Sing Up!'s magazine. She is also known for her originally-themed performances for choirs - in 2008, her song 'Sunshine in My Heart' was used by the Association for All Speech Impaired Children (Afasic) in an attempt to enter the Guinness Book of Records by getting as many people as possible to simultaneously sing a song in sign language. Alison is a founding member of the Natural Voice Practitioners' Network, the international organization for voice teachers and singers working in community settings, and continues to be involved in its development.

The Voiceworks series goes from strength to strength, and this heavy spiral-bound book is an extremely useful resource . . . Every piece has a full page of written introduction, giving context, tips for how to start teaching the piece to your group, and guidance on creating a performance . . . There's advice every step of the way on how to keep your singers engaged, singing healthily, and learning well, and the musical content is excellent. Where there are piano parts, they are easy and playable. Everything is explained and explained again, and the typesetting and presentation is beautiful. What's more, each page bears the slogan 'This page may be photocopied'. There's a CD in the back, loaded with MP3s including 'learning tracks', which highlight each part separately, and piano backing tracks.

• SECTION I: SHORT AND SWEET; SECTION II: PEACE AND REFLECTION; SECTION III: LIBERTY AND FREEDOM; SECTION IV: CHANGE, LOSS, AND MOVING ON; SECTION V: CELEBRATIONS