Choral director Suzi Digby founded the Voices Foundation and was one of the very first signatories to the Music Manifesto. Now she's about to find TV fame as a judge on new BBC choral competition Last Choir Standing. We caught up with her to find out more about the show and ask what makes singing such a powerful thing.
MM: You've been promoting singing and choral music for a long time. How does it feel to make it to prime time TV?
SD: I was ambivalent to start with. I've been low profile/high impact up till now and there's a double-edged sword to celebrity as we all know, but my friends said you've got to go for it. I was concerned we were going to have to dumb down for Saturday night, but no, the standard of singing is high quality as well as extremely entertaining.
My big mission in life is to get everyone singing and transform the lives of ordinary people through singing. When I started Voices Foundation in 1992 you would never have seen TV people putting money and muscle behind choirs and this is a great celebration. It's evidence of our success.
Does the show reflect a growing interest in choirs and choral singing?
Yes of course, you would not see the BBC risking a show like this unless they felt there was a public mood for it. I'm absolutely positive that it's going to make a lot of ordinary people want to go and join choirs, no questions about it and that can only be a good thing.
What has the standard of singing been like?
The quality of choirs is just fantastic. What you're looking for is potential, where can they go. You want an amazing bunch of people with an amazing director.
What qualities will they need to be the last choir standing?
I've got a very exacting ear so everything has to be in place, the building blocks of tuning, balance and blend, all of that has to be there. But beyond that, are you going to go away and remember that performance forever? It's how they get behind the words and the mood of the song. They have to excite you.
Are there any common things that choirs get wrong?
Usually it is the wrong choice of repertoire. The director has got to choose songs that are challenging but appropriate for the choir. You need to be very clever about the choice of music. Once you've got the choice of music right, then the sky's the limit.
What makes singing such a powerful thing?
The fact that singing comes from a different place to speech. Neuroscience has shown us that singing is a right brain activity and speech is a left brain activity - which is why stroke victims can sing but they can't speak, and why stammerers don't stammer when they're singing. Once you realise that and see it comes from a different, primal placem then the next logical step is understanding why it's so powerful.
The likes of Voices Foundation and Sing Up are working hard to spread singing activity, but what more could we do to get people singing?
It's not getting people singing, it's how you get them singing. I think bad music teaching is worse than no music teaching. I think where we have a long way to go is educating people that singing can be an amazingly important medium through which to develop musical intelligence in young people. I don't think people understand that yet, the different training and methodologies, and understanding the windows of opportunity in a child's development.
What would be your ideal vision for music education?
In terms of developing the musician in every child they have to start with being sung to a lot, at home. Music has to be part of their everyday life, pre-puberty, along along with movement, for example using Kodaly and Dalcroze - I don't know a better combination.
Once the building blocks are in place and they've got the ear and the basic skills, then they can learn an instrument and have the experience of playing together in orchestras and bands and choirs, as well as privately, for themselves. In an ideal world you would have all of that and there's no reason why every single child should not be able to grow up and sing and play great music as part of their lives, every week.