Latest News and Updates

25 March 2021

New Friday Afternoons songs by composer Russell Hepplewhite with texts by former Children’s Laureate Michael Rosen to receive online world premiere on 14 May 2021!

EVERYTHING – was due to be premiered in 2020 but had to be postponed because of COVID and only two of the twelve songs were released. The ten unheard Friday Afternoons songs by composer Russell Hepplewhite with texts by renowned children’s author and former Children’s Laureate Michael Rosen will now be premiered on 14 May on Britten Pears Arts’ YouTube channel.

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EVERYTHING Premieres - Meet the Choirs!

28 January 2021

This May we will be premiering the ten remaining songs from EVERYTHING, our newest set written by Russell Hepplewhite and Michael Rosen! The premieres will be held online and will be performed by ten choirs from across the UK and Ireland, selected from our open call in December.

- Amherst School Choir, Kent

- Cornwall County Choirs

- Dublin Youth Choir

- The Grange Choir, Monmouth Boys' Prep

- Lodge Moor Childrens Choir, Sheffield

- The National Youth Choir of Scotland

- Poco Amabile, Cumbria

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New Songs Premieres - Open Call for Choirs!

6 November 2020

Our new set of songs, entitled Everything, has been composed by Russell Hepplewhite, with lyrics by Michael Rosen. We have already released 2 songs, Earth and Language. These two songs were premiered during lockdown in a brilliant digital performance by London Youth Choirs!

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Language - the second song from EVERYTHING

22 May 2020

Following the success of Earth, we're releasing Language, the second song from our upcoming collection EVERYTHING by composer Russell Hepplewhite and Michael Rosen.

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An Interview with Russell Hepplewhite

22 May 2020

"I tried to set the songs so that they could be approached by any child, at any primary school, anywhere..."

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Launching Earth - our newest song!

15 May 2020

Today we’re delighted to launch Earth, the first song from EVERYTHING, our upcoming collection by composer Russell Hepplewhite, with texts by renowned children’s author and former Children’s Laureate

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We've been reflecting: Looking back over the last year

30 April 2020

Reflecting on the last year: Ambassadors Update

In this strange time, the Friday Afternoons team have been reflecting over everything that's taken place over the last year and looking ahead to some exciting things we've got coming up.

In this video, our Ambassadors look at just some of the things that they've enjoyed from 2019 to 2020.

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We've relaunched our website!

21 November 2019

We’re pleased to announce the relaunch of the Friday Afternoons website today: Benjamin Britten’s Birthday, St Cecilia’s Day and six years after the inaugural Friday Afternoons event.

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What we learned in our evaluation

21 November 2019

2018 marked the sixth year of Friday Afternoons activity. Snape Maltings took that year as an opportunity to reflect on the project to ensure the continues to be relevant, distinctive and impactful in years to come.

We're keen to share the results of this process in our Evaluation Headlines Report.

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Introducing our Ambassadors

26 July 2019

It's time for us to introduce to you our all-new Ambassadors: Dominic Ellis-Peckham, Emily Barden, Charles MacDougall, Charlotte Brosnan and Tom Appleton.

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