Representatives of Mouthful, the acapella ensemble leading the project, will be at the town’s 4th annual Food Festival event on Sunday 31st July from 11.30 to 14.30.
They will be singing in the Northern Lights shop on Milton Street (TS12 1DH) as well as singing in the street, handing out leaflets and signing up singers.
The Festival of Thrift project hopes to create a 170-strong choir to celebrate 170 years of steel-making on Teesside to perform at this year’s event at Kirkleatham near Redcar on 17 and 18 September.
An award-winning family festival all about upcycling, recycling and creativity, the Festival of Thrift is the UK’s national celebration of sustainable living.
Mouthful is a quartet, Katherine Zeserson, Dave Camlin, Sharon Durant and Bex Mather, based in the north east that’s been together for 14 years. As well as giving performances in conventional style the group specialises in creating music for special locations.
All four of its members are established leading community musicians and choir leaders in their own right and they create and perform a diverse range of vocal material ranging from Georgian to gospel, folk to funk, including jazz and country along the way.
The Festival’s Phoenix Voices choir aims to bring together people of all ages and abilities. Taking the themes of forging, smelting and tempering as the starting point, Mouthful will work with singers to “mash up”, that is, to make new songs, re-imagine old songs and perform them together.
It will result in a short a cappella performance to be presented twice during the Festival weekend, as well as a band of pop-up Invisible Singers drawn from the participant group who will contribute to the animation of the Festival site throughout.
The choir is open to all and the only requirement is enthusiasm.
All are welcome to rehearsals being held at Kirkleatham on 3 and 10 September from 10am – 5pm and 13, 14 and 16 September from 7pm – 9.30pm.
Catch the choir at Saltburn or register interest by emailing alex@festivalofthrift.co.uk
Further details are at www.festivalofthrift.co.uk/get-singing-with-mouthful