Welcome

This site is for all those who want to be part of this 220 country project - London school groups who want to to partner up with EPOC and a different world nation to create a crazy new Children’s Jazz Opera to celebrate London’s hosting of the Olympics 2012.

Click here for a copy of the programme including cast list and sing-a-long word sheets

Click here to see full page version of Unicorn Theatre Performances May 21-25

Click here to see full page version of the Rose Theatre (Kingston) performances June 12-21

Click here to see full page version of the Pleasance Theatre (Islington) performances June 26 - July 8

Click here to see full page version of the Broadway Theatre (Barking performances July 10-18

What is Ring Round the World?

It is an international musical celebration of the Olympics and Paralympics 2012 for 60,000 children from 173 schools. It is also …

The biggest children’s opera ever written

Part of the London 2012 Festival (the culmination of the Cultural Olympiad) the opera has been commissioned from renowned composer and music educationalist Pete Churchill (professor of Jazz at Royal Academy of Music and GSMD), but it will be largely created, performed and recorded by children. It is an opera in 173 scenes - one for every major world nation. Working with 173 schools and a cast of over 5,000, this thrilling tale of adventure will journey around the world, collecting a ‘ring’ of truth from each place visited, expressed in different musical styles and song, and depicted across 32 fully-staged performances in 6 theatres (4 in London and 2 in Cambridgeshire).

The ‘core’ opera will start and end in London, visiting China, Greece and Australia at every performance, but our heroes will also visit 6 additional countries in scenes created by children, that will change at each of the 32 performances. The 173 children’s scenes will be achieved through a 5-step education project, involving school twinning with one specific world nation, teacher-training, interactive performances in schools for 40,000 children, in-depth artist residency work, and performance in professional London theatres with 5,000 children. The core scenes will give rise to 5 sing-along anthems or choruses (the ‘Ring Songs’), which will be taught to all 60,000 project participants.

This Website

A permanent, universally-accessible world-music resource, with information, classroom activities and a World Song Bank, representing every country in the world. All songs and music will be available in a variety of easily-downloadable media, modelled on the ‘Sing Up’ initiative, but greatly extending the geographical reach, and opening up the creative outcomes of the project for use by all – music teachers and non-musicians alike. The website will then be ‘passed on’, via Scottish Opera, to the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, to the 2016 Olympic Games in Brazil and numerous other international sporting, cultural and environmental projects.

The 5 ‘Ring Songs’

• A performance at the Royal Albert Hall with the combined musical forces of 41 Camden schools;
• BBC Olympic Music Nation event (Camden Roundhouse) with assorted school and community choirs;
• ArtsBeat Festival, Merton – a music festival in South London involving 14,000 children from 45 schools and 400 young song leaders;
• Cambridge outdoor ‘Flash Mob’ performance of the Ring Songs with over 1500 people to celebrate the Torch Relay’s arrival in the city.

A Partnership

Ring Round the World is a partnership between: 173 schools; London 2012 Festival; British Council; Scottish Opera; BBC; several LEA Music Services most notably Camden Music and Merton Music Foundation. Our other partners, funders without whom none of this would be possible, include Peter Moores Foundation, Foyle Foundation, John Lyon’s Charity, Rayne Foundation, the Confucius Institute and a large number of generous individuals.

What and Who are EPOC?

Founded in 1993, English Pocket Opera Company www.epoc.co is a music charity based in a Camden Primary School that has grown to become one of the largest charitable providers of music education in the UK. Working with up to 50,000 children per year, it produces cross-curricular programmes designed to achieve broad educational and social impact that are tailored to individual needs of schools and communities.