From Voices For Life: 200 children prepare for lift-off at Bath ‘Stardust’ Concert!
On the 29th January, children from 6 Bath primary schools will be gathering in Bath Abbey to sing at Voices for Life’s 7th ‘Stardust’ concert.
The project features music by local composer Jools Scott and librettist Sue Curtis, and teaches children about the importance of courage, determination and working together. It is a shining example of the charity’s blended approach, bringing both high-quality music education and emotional wellbeing coaching to children from all backgrounds.
Commenting on the impact of Stardust, Curtis explained, ‘[it] forms a life changing project for children, no matter who they are or where they live. […] It is a musical journey made up of songs which are warm, exciting and funny. They also carry a deeper message of resilience and hope.’
A particular highlight will be the announcement of Voices for Life’s first ever Young Ambassador, an up-and-coming musical star, who will be talking about their personal musical journey and its importance for their emotional development.
The concert will also provide an opportunity for Voices for Life to celebrate its recent rebrand, featuring the ‘breath mark’ logo. This embodies its commitment to creating space for children to grow and discover their potential through music.
One child testified to the impact of a previous Stardust project for her wellbeing, saying, ‘Sometimes I can be worried about something and then I remember Voices for Life and that I can overcome my fear and sadness. It helps me to concentrate on both the good things as well as the bad things so I can face my fears and do something about it.’
Primary schools participating in the concert include Castle Primary School, St Mary’s Primary School, St Michael’s Junior School, St Martin’s Garden School, Roundhill Primary School and St Keyna Primary School.
The young singers will be joined by the Bristol Ensemble, John Telfer (‘The Archers’) as Narrator, Musical Director Pete Harrison (a regular guest conductor at the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra), soloists from Stagecoach Performing Arts Bath and the Voices for Life Bath Children’s Choir.
The ‘Stardust’ concert will take place in Bath Abbey at 7-8pm on the 29th January 2025.
Tickets are available for purchase on the Bath Box Office website at https://bathboxoffice.org.uk/whats-on/stardust-a-musical-journey-2025/about and on the door. Audience members of all ages are welcome!
About Voices for Life:
Voices for Life is a Bath-based charity, offering children from all backgrounds a unique combination of wellbeing coaching and quality music education, through children’s choirs, dedicated musical workshops and impressive massed performances. In so doing, it fosters children’s confidence, creativity and self-discovery. By bringing together people from rural, urban and underserved areas during concerts, it also seeks to build healthy, sustainable communities.
In just four years, it has helped over 9600 children and extended its impact beyond the BANES area, with projects in South Gloucestershire and Cornwall in 2024. Its projects have had clear, positive results, with 80% of children demonstrating improved confidence, and 80% reporting increased enjoyment in singing.
Voices for Life Trustees: Peter Martin, Mary Edwards, Dave Goucher, Jo Bird, Deborah Hale MBE and Louisa Oldfield.
Voices for Life Patron: the Mayor of Bath
Voices for Life Ambassadors: Edward Bayntun-Coward DL, Suzi Digby OBE, Jamila Gavin MBE, Wera Hobhouse MP, Marian McNeir MBE and Thomas Sheppard DL
Stardust:
Stardust is a 45-minute musical work commissioned by Voices for Life in 2021, which has already run 6 times in locations ranging from Bath to Truro.
The story is set in outer space, where a group of children preparing to settle on another planet are cut off from their mothership by a solar flare. Suddenly alone, they must overcome the challenges of different ‘feeling planets’ and find their way back to each other. With courage, determination and friendship, they are reunited and join in the ‘space dance’, realising their interconnectedness with the universe and each other.
For each project, up to 200 children receive musical and wellbeing workshops over 10 weeks in school. This culminates in a performance in an impressive venue, accompanied by a professional orchestra and actor.
Tessa Armstrong (Founder and Executive Director):
Tessa is an award-winning senior career and confidence coach and author. She has extensive experience helping adults and young people in the private, public, education and charity sectors with a focus on self-esteem and confidence. She also provides a systematic and pragmatic approach to the development of career paths and charity organisational structure. Having begun her career as a solicitor and charity fundraiser, Tessa founded her own business providing coaching services nationally.
With a degree in music and a trained Thrive Emotional Health Practitioner, Tessa has a passion for using her skills to positively impact children’s development and wellbeing through music and other artistic forms. She has designed the Voices for Life concepts. She lives in Wiltshire with her family and is governor of a local primary school. In September 2023, Tessa received the High Sheriff of Somerset award in recognition of great and valuable services to the community. She was also a finalist in the Creative Bath Awards 2024.
Jools Scott (Composer):
Jools has worked with the British Film Institute, Brodsky Quartet, Flanders Symphony Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra and St. Paul’s Cathedral Choir. In 2015, he scored Andrew Steggall’s feature film Departure (“Jools Scott’s tastefully sparse score” – Variety Magazine). The same year, he performed in Sally Cookson’s critically acclaimed production of Jane Eyre (National Theatre).
In 2014, Jools and his long-term librettist Sue Curtis, completed The Cool Web : A Robert Graves Oratorio, which premiered in Bath Abbey. The Cool Web opened the Wimbledon International Music Festival in 2017, and closed the official UK and Belgian 1914-1918 centenary programme at St. Paul’s Cathedral in 2018. Jools started writing music for Voices for Life in 2021.
Sue Curtis (Librettist):
Sue approaches her work as writer and librettist from the solid foundation of a lifetime’s experience in literature and theatre. Sue has spent much of her life as an academic, lecturing at universities in South Africa, Austria, and England, and teaching at King Edward’s School in Bath. Here she founded a Drama Department which she ran for twenty years.
She has worked as an actor and as an award-winning director and her passion for theatre and commitment to professional production values communicated itself to her students, over 150 of whom now work in the industry. Sue started writing for Voices for Life in 2021.
Pete Harrison (Musical Director):
Pete studied at the Royal College of Music, London before his conducting career started in London’s West End with Crazy For You (Prince Edward Theatre), Disney’s Beauty & the Beast (Dominion Theatre) and Lautrec (Theatre Royal, Plymouth and Shaftesbury Theatre).
He is a regular guest conductor and presenter with many orchestras including the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the Philharmonia, the Ulster Orchestra, the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra (BSO). He is the Musical Director of the BSO Voices Choir based in Southampton.
Pete is also the Music Director of the Brent Youth Concert Pops Orchestra partnered with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Other education work includes the National Youth Wind Orchestras of both Great Britain and Wales, Kent County Youth Orchestra, Berkshire Youth Symphony Orchestra for Berkshire Maestros and the Symphony Orchestra and Symphonic Wind Orchestra of Wells Cathedral School. Pete first collaborated with Voices for Life as a musical director for the Stardust performance in Wells Cathedral in 2023.
John Telfer (Narrator):
John Telfer has worked extensively in theatre, performing on many occasions for the Bristol Old Vic and Royal National Theatre companies. His numerous television credits include co-presenting Let’s Pretend and five years as sidekick Willy Pettit in Bergerac.
In addition to many BBC Radio dramas and short stories, he has played the Reverend Alan Franks in The Archers since 2003, and has read for Poetry Please and Word of Mouth; he can be heard on dozens of audiobooks. A trained musician, he also narrates with the Brodsky Quartet and The Bristol Ensemble. John first collaborated with Voices for Life in 2023.
Voices for Life Bath Children’s Choir:
Voices for Life’s choir for primary school children aged 6-11 years, with rehearsals every Saturday in the Bath Abbey Song school. It offers a brilliant opportunity for children who have enjoyed participating in projects like Stardust to keep singing after the project has finished.
For more information please contact tessa@voicesforlife.org.uk
The Voices for Life website is: www.voicesforlife.org.uk
Photography Credit: Martin Tompkins Photography and Video