City of Derry International Choir Festival & Alchemy Technology Services 2023
Context
Alchemy Technology Services is a global centre of excellence for insurance software implementation. Based in Derry-Londonderry, Alchemy attracts talented individuals, offering them a fulfilling career in an exciting market place, creating a win-win for the individuals, the community and stakeholders in the transformation of the insurance industry.
City of Derry International Choir Festival, founded in 2013, is now established as one of the leading choir festivals in Europe, with a world-wide reputation as an outstanding event showcasing the best that choral singing has to offer.
Challenge
Community singing is a highly social activity that brings people together from a great diversity of backgrounds and experiences, from workplace groups through to cancer survivors and people living with disabilities or dementia. The health and well-being benefits of choral singing are well documented through many research studies that show reductions in stress-levels and the release of positive hormones such as endorphins, as well as tackling social isolation, particularly for the elderly. The pandemic however had drastically curtailed this activity, casting singing as a super-spreader and high-risk, and exiling it to an online activity. Our challenge was to bring community choirs back into the live performance arena, providing platforms and opportunities to get people singing together again, rebuilding their confidence and vocal strength after a time away.
“We were delighted to play our part in supporting the City of Derry International Choir Festival and particularly the community stage. This supported our key business objectives to provide both personal and professional growth opportunities to our employees and position Derry-Londonderry as a vibrant place to both live and work. This initiative was a win-win for the local community, the arts sector and our employees.”
Alchemy, Business Partner
Solution
The 2022 Community Programme ran throughout the five-day Choir Festival, taking the joy of singing and making music together to all parts of the City of Derry, and out into the North-West region more widely. From the opening night concert, featuring a 100 strong massed community chorus drawn from choirs across the city singing with the Ulster Orchestra, to pop-up events in shopping centres, malls, cafes, bars and open-air spaces, to community concerts in arts centres and community hubs, and sacred trails as part of Sunday services in churches across denominations, the programme achieved its aim of bringing choirs back together and reuniting them with audiences, bringing the many and varied spaces of the city to life through song.
Results
The programme exceeded expectations, producing an extensive and well attended schedule of events, including:
- An Opening Gala Concert performance by Festival Chorus, with the Ulster Orchestra
- Ten community concerts in venues across the north-west including Derry, Strabane and Donegal
- Thirty-eight choral trail performances, including Alchemy Stage events in City Hotel and Foyleside Shopping Centre
- Ten Sunday service performances, across denominations
- Let’s Just Sing workshop, for new singers or those returning to singing after a time away
In all, the programme featured 80 events in 35 venues, including 100+ choirs and more than 1,500 participants, with a live audience of 12,000.
“Alchemy’s commitment to the Festival was one of the largest single contributions we have received in sponsorship from a local company, substantially increasing the impact and reach of the event within local communities, together with heightened visibility, for both festival and sponsor. The development of Alchemy Stages, public platforms located in easily accessible spaces where festival choirs could perform and audiences enjoy their artistry, was a high-profile and successful feature of the partnership. Thank you, Alchemy – we look forward to building on our work together, for the benefit of our singers, communities and audiences.”
City of Derry International Choir Festival. Arts Partner.