Young Voices Concerts
Ben Lewis
Director
Ben has been with Young Voices since it was founded by his father in the mid-nineties and is passionate about the affect YV has had on hundreds of thousands of children across the UK. After studying in Manchester and Cape Town, where his brother Paul now runs the not-for-profit Young Voices South Africa project, Ben is now back in the UK and based in London.
On the subject of YV, Ben says, "The hardest thing is to keep improving each year. We set ourselves high standards but making sure we satisfy everyone can be really tough. Young Voices has to be fun and exciting for the pupils, a valuable educational resource for the teachers and finally a great show for the parents."
"My proudest moments are always reading the letters we get from our fantastic teachers, pupils and parents, telling us how valuable YV is to them. Our office, overseen by Anne, puts in so much time and effort in order to deal with the obvious logistical nightmares that arise from such huge events and it’s great to know how much it is appreciated."
Sound + Light Productions
Production Management
Sound + Light Productions has produced the Young Voices Concert Tour for seven years.
The Christmas time tours present celebrity entertainers and young performers in concert accompanied by vast children’s choirs. The choirs also delight in the chance to join together in singing a repotoire of seasonal and pop music favourites.
There is an incomparable delight in successfully rigging the lighting and rehearsing the choirs of up to 8,000 children before each concert commences.
David Lawrence
Conductor
On the day the choir is conducted by David Lawrence. His work has
taken him to India, Canada, South America and twelve European
countries. David has worked for most of the UK’s choral organisations,
is a popular leader of choral workshops and a well known trainer
of choral conductors. He has adjudicated at international choral
festivals as well as for the BBC Choir of the Year Competition. David
also conducts for BBC Television’s ‘Songs of Praise’ programme and
has conducted live broadcasts for both BBC and ITV.
Craig McLeish
Music Director
The musical repertoire is arranged by Craig McLeish. Craig has
worked on Young Voices for over 7 years and his enthusiasm for
the concerts is undiminished. He says that, "Young Voices is such a
great way for children and young people to be introduced to live
performing in front of a big audience. They get the buzz of being real
stars and hopefully the variety of the music we perform will inspire
them in later years. I am so proud to be involved, I wish we had had
something like this when I was at school."