New Forest Song Cycle

About the event

The New Forest Song is a song-cycle commission led by children and young people connecting them to the landscape.

The New Forest Song is a community-led song-cycle commission for a range of voices. The aim of the project is to connect local people, especially children and young people, to the landscape and special properties of the New Forest.

The project also offers the opportunity to bring together groups of young people from across the Forest, create a sense of local identity and share their co-created songs with each other.

Workshops are taking place at the Countryside Education Trust’s Treehouses and also in local primary and secondary schools and with home-educated groups, mainly on the Waterside, with some in New Milton.

The project is being managed by the Countryside Education Trust, an environmental education charity in Beaulieu, with a farm, woodland, orchard and gardens.  The Trust has worked with thousands of children on school residential and day visits during its long history and is a well-loved local institution.

Elinor Cooper – Artistic Director

Elinor is a professional singer and choral conductor in the South West and she has worked with young people to a high level, including as Director of the Bristol University Singers, and as Assistant Director both at the Rodolfus Foundation and the National Youth Choirs. An alumna of the National Youth Choirs of Great Britain and The Sixteen, Elinor grew up in the New Forest.

Oliver Tarney – Composer

Oliver is currently Head of Academic Music and Composition at Winchester College in Hampshire. He has written widely for children and adults, amateurs and professionals. Major works include his acclaimed Magnificat, recorded for Convivium Records, and a St Mark Passion, commissioned by the St Endellion Easter Festival. Oliver has worked extensively to promote singing in communities, choirs, and classrooms. He is passionate about inspiring others to find a love of singing.

Carrie Thompson – Librettist

Tarney and Thompson have successfully collaborated before on a similar project, ‘I am.  We are.’ with the National Youth Boys’ Choir, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yU91zBpz1VQ.