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Cathedral welcomes The Queen

Sheffield Cathedral welcomed Her Majesty the Queen this morning as she came to see the work of the Sing! Project.

The Queen met over 150 schoolchildren, and heard performances of Queen’s We Will Rock You, the Beatles’ hit All You Need is Love, and I Just Can’t Wait to be King from the musical The Lion King.

For three years Sheffield Cathedral has been involved in a national chorister outreach programme, administered by the Choir Schools Association for the National Singing Programme, Sing Up. The Cathedral’s contribution to this programme is called Sing!'

Sheffield Cathedral works in ten primary schools in Sheffield, many of which are in areas of considerable challenge and few of which have the resources to offer much in the way of musical provision in the curriculum.

Speaking before the performance, Nick Cox, animateur and project leader, said of the Sing! Project’s work, “I’ve been working in schools for over three years now, and I’ve never seen this level of excitement in children before. I think that it’s a mixture of enjoying the challenging yet accessible repertoire, and knowing that they’ll be coming together with children from over ten other schools across the city to put on an amazing performance for the Queen. The experience is something truly unique for them all and it really seems to have struck a chord.”

The Very Revd Peter Bradley, Dean of Sheffield, said, ““Sing! is an important part of Sheffield Cathedral’s musical outreach and we are proud to see staff and students’ wonderful work recognized by The Queen’s visit.”

Funding was initially provided from central government, but when that finished at the end of the 2009/10 academic year a further year's funding was secured from the Sheffield Church Burgesses Educational Foundation along with a generous grant from the D’Oyly Carte Charitable Trust. We are currently seeking sponsorship for this valuable work to continue beyond 2011.