In late January this year my son got the chance to take part in the wonderful experience that is Young Voices at Resorts World Arena in Birmingham. If your child(ren) has taken part in Young Voice then you will know what a fantastic experience it is for children to be part of the World’s Largest School Choir performing with professional musicians and famous musicians in an actual Arena. If you want to know more about what the experience of your child taking part in Young Voices is like then read my review:
Review: The Largest School Choir On the World – Young Voices
On the day of the performance at Resorts World Arena in Birmingham, I was very lucky to be invited to watch some of the rehearsal for the evening show and also to meet Musical Director, and composer of many of the songs sung that night, Craig McLeish. As well as having been the Musical Director of Young Voices for the past 24 years, Craig is also conductor of several choirs including Milton Keynes Community Choir and the MK Sweet Sound choir, founded to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the song Amazing Grace. He has written many songs for the parent and baby classes Moo Music. I know his work best not only because my son sang his medleys a lot in the car in the lead up to Young Voices, but also because the choir I sing with, Notorious, sang some of his songs based on Spike Milligan songs – Never Felt Finer is a personal favourite and a song that will absolutely not leave my head!
I met Craig (CM) in the Green Room at Resorts World immediately after a very high energy rehearsal for that evening’s show and spoke to him about his experience as Musical Director of Young Voices, and about the process of putting together the playlist for each year’s shows, and writing much of the music that around 6,000 children per night all sing together at these amazing shows.
I started by asking him about how he became a composer.
CM: I suppose I always wanted to be a composer, right from being a teenager. I started out wanting to be very serious about music, working on things like string quartets. I had always been involved with choirs and choral music, and loved arranging writing whatever music I could. I went to the Guildhall School of Music and after I left there found myself writing for West End Musicals where I spent lots of time learning from the great Masters of Musical Theatre. I was involved in musicals like Les Miserables and Miss Saigon in the mid 1980s. Before computers were used in music at all, so you were writing the music by hand and you had to be really careful writing the music down correctly as if you messed it up, you had to start all over again! I used to sometimes get a score on Tuesday night, work all night that night going into the studio on the Wednesday with the score all ready to go to be filmed for something on TV. It was all a lot of fun! So I was always composing and arranging songs, and really wanting to make things sound better, do things differently.
Get Kids Into Music (GKIM): So how did you get involved with Young Voices?
CM: Through the conductor David (Lawrence). He had been invited to conduct Young Voices the year before and they needed a new MD (Musical Director) the year after he started and he suggested me. Ever since then we have been working together as a team. I choose the music and he teaches it.
GKIM: You’re obviously performing with Young Voices 2024 now, but how far in advance do you start thinking about the repertoire for the following year?
CM: Well I am thinking now about songs for 2026 in terms of the basic ideas that I want, of the thread I want it to follow. The programme for next year, 2025 I have already sequenced1 a lot of it on the computer, in terms of the order of the songs, some of the medleys, the keys I want the kids to sing in. The fine arrangements have yet to be done, that’s the task for as soon as this tour is finished. And once that’s done they will be sent off to the publishers and we’ll get them back in a couple of months. We might find out then that a couple of them need amending and I’ll do that. But we try to get everything finalised by the summer, June or July, which is when we send everything out to the schools. Some of the schools even start working on the songs for Young Voices in the summer, which is great! That last stage, with proof reading, doing little tweaks and changes that need to be done, and re-checking the songs, that’s the bit that takes the longest. You know, maybe we’ll see that there’s a difficult word for the kids to sing, and then we’ll get that changed, and we maybe need to ask the writers and publishers of the original songs if we can make those changes, we might even get them involved. Sometimes we write our own songs, sometimes we get other people to write songs for us.
The first song of the show we see as a way of describing that moment. The children are singing together, unified. There is harmony and there is unison but it is all unified, and hopefully there is something uplifting about that.
The variety of music that we have in each show is so important.
GKIM: Do you think in terms of a theme for each year?
CM: If there is a theme, it kind of emerges really. When I was chasing the music for this year, it didn’t start out like that but it ended up being a very positive. You know, after Covid, some people are still a little bit down, things are difficult, things are not as easy as they were before; so the songs that seemed good to do for this year all seemed to have very positive, uplifting messages to them – you can do it; you can get there; together we’re stronger; today’s going to be a good day. There seemed to be a link there, they all had this positive energy to them,
For me I lose sleep until I feel like I have got the spread off the concert right. You can’t tick every box, but until there are enough different genres covered to try to have something in there for most people, then I’m not happy with it. We don’t try to avoid Classical music but we don’t want to have too much. We have featured music by Classical composers, like Caesar Franck, Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, but we do it in a different way. These days Classical music its just not the go-to music for kids, and I think these days there is the perception that Classical music is boring, so when we do it we try to make it more interesting, more exciting, more fun.
This year we have got a folk song from Korea, Arirang, which is the song that is very different. It is a cappella2, well the second part of the song is, it’s in a different language for a start, it’s a folk song, it’s slower, there is a piano solo bit in it. It just gives a different vibe to the rest of the atmosphere, a different texture for the kids to sing. And they surprise themselves. They start off feeling not too sure about it, but by the time they perform it, they love being involved in something that they can feel the drum patterns, and the different rhythms in the song. They are singing in Korean, there is 3 part harmony – they are singing in a round. And I love that instant harmony you get with rounds, where the children are all singing the same tune, but because it’s part of a round they’re singing in instant harmony, feeling that tension and pushing against another part, and that swell of harmony that you get. And I think they get excited by that, and that they can do it. And hopefully they are learning in the process.
We don’t want Young Voices to get too bogged down in it being a learning experience, but we do want to educate the kids in different musical styles, and maybe the history of the songs, where they came from. Like, this year there is a medley In The Mood, where the songs are all themed around the war and the music of Glenn Miller, and the beginnings of swing, jazz and blues styles of music. We did a 50s medley once where we got the kids to doing a different song from each year of the 1950s, and it was the emerging of rock’n’roll, showing the kids where rock’n’roll came from. I loved that one!
The rock number we have this year is much more contemporary thanks to working with Nandi Bushell. We wanted her input into the song the kids sang with her, so we have a bit of Metallica and a bit of Nirvana in there, and of course some Queen, just to include some really iconic rock moments. And these artists, they may not be the artists we would usually choose to include, but working with Nandi Bushell it’s so fantastic seeing how the children react to her playing it – watching them imagine that it is them playing just like her.
GKIM: I was watching a bit of the rehearsal, and seeing how the children sat behind her were watching her intently and playing along with her.
CM: Oh yes, they are absolutely copying her moves. But isn’t that wonderful. She is inspiring them, and hopefully some of them will take up an instrument, maybe even drums, after this, and think “I can do that”, and maybe some of them will.
GKIM: Do you know well in advance which artists are going to be taking part? Do you tailor the songs to them?
CM: As much as the conductor David and I would like the artists to be confirmed further in advance of the show dates it’s very difficult to actually do that given their schedules. If we can get them earlier, then it’s brilliant because I can tailor the programme around them. One year we had the High Kings from Ireland, they are the sons and grandsons of the iconic music families from Ireland. And they are incredible, they play and sing harmonies and it is gorgeous, and they were on with Connie Talbot who was just 11 at the time having just been on Britain’s Got Talent and we also had Randolph Matthews who does rap, sings and does Beatboxing all on the same tour. And to have those 3 on was so great, and we built a whole show around them. We normally have a fairly good idea. And as long as you get the spread of what is going in the music pack right, you can add other things onto that which are going to complement and you can suggest other things to the artists that would work well. Like, I’d chosen River Deep, Mountain High as the finale for this year and then Tina Turner died, and that made sense to honour her and then Natalie [Williams] got signed, and that was absolutely perfect for her to lead that song. We were originally going to have our singers sing that one, but then when she was signed it fitted to give the song to her to sing, and then Nandi [Bushell} wanted to play saxophone in that one instead of the drums, and of course this song has a great sax line and that worked really well. So then I needed to arrange the song to have 16 bars in the middle for MC Grammar to write a rap for which sums up the entire show. And as it’s the finale, you want to make sure you feature and showcase everyone who has been part of the show in that last song.
GKIM: Have you every been surprised when an artist said yes to working with you, where you felt maybe you were pushing your luck to get them involved?
CM: Probably not. You know, we know what an incredible thing this is, and that if they come they will have the time of their lives. Even when we have had really big names join us. The best artists who join us, they get it. They get what we are doing with Young Voices, and for them it’s not about them or giving them a chance just to show off, it’s about more than that. The best artists that we have worked with have really immersed themselves with us, and with the kids as well.
It’s very important to us that everybody has a great night. You know, if we just made it so that they kids had a great time but it was a really difficult experience with the teachers, then they wouldn’t come back. So we have got to support the teachers a huge amount with the learning in schools, with bringing them in for workshops, and with making it a good experience on the day, sir it’s not utterly exhausting for them. And then the parents have got to want to come as well, then think “Wow, what an amazing show!” We want them to feel that their child gets to be in this quality, quality product that is just as good as anything they have eve been to. That’s what we’re striving to do.
GKIM: Do you have a favourite part of the process?
CM: I do have a few favourite parts. When I find a song that I think the kids are going to really, really love, and I’m the only one that knows what I’ve chosen, that’s really nice. There’s always one every year I am quite surprised that they like, but I tend to think that by now I have got a handle on what I think they are going to enjoy. Then when I’m arranging and I’ve got a really good segue in a medley, on a very personal front that is very pleasing. You know when I’ve maybe just swapped songs in the medley around and it just works. I don’t like to just stick the medleys together, I try and get a storyline, a theme to it, try and get a musical line to it as well. Then I choose the key very carefully so the songs all work together and they flow and of course that it sits right for the children to actually be able to sing. If they’re singing, say a male voiced pop song then it’s just not going to be in the right key for them at all, unless it’s someone with a really high voice like Stevie Wonder. And of course, then it’s not necessarily the same as the original, but our own version that will work for the kids. We then get our singers to demonstrate the songs on the demos that I make, so that when the kids are learning the songs they are hearing them in the right key for them to sing and they get used to that version of the song. Then on the day they are ready!
GKIM: Do you have a favourite song from this year, because there is a definite favourite in our house?
CM: Oooh, I really like Walking on the Moon from the Walking Medley just because it’s such an unusual, interesting kind of vibe. I like all the walking songs actually. I really like doing all the Matilda stuff. I have this theory – the Matilda Medley and the Moana one, I call them the Blue Touch Paper songs because you just light the blue touch paper and stand back, you don’t even have to teach those songs. Some of the pop medley stuff as well, you just start the tape, and they know it, there’s no learning to be done. But then I like them all really, I enjoy the whole show. How about the favourite in your house?
GKIM: It’s absolutely the pop medley, and especially the Sam Ryder song.
CM: See, when I first heard that song it wasn’t a hit at the time, but it just screamed Young Voices to me. All this amazing positive energy and such a positive message. A good vibe, a good groove. It’s such a good song to come into and go out of within the medley, and he is such an icon as well. Such a modern hero for almost coming first in Eurovision. It all really, really works. We did his song Starman last year as our surprise overture song, and the kids all joined in with that and sang along, so Sam Ryder, yes. I agree with that choice!
GKIM: Finally, if you had a parent in front of you right now, and they weren’t sure whether to sign their child up for Young Voices, they weren’t sure what their child would get out of it, whether their child would enjoy it, what would you say to that parent?
CM: I would say, all the people on tour that I speak to of my age or other ages, older than anyone who has done Young Voices, they all say “I wish I had this when I was that age!” It’s an incredible opportunity. I think they learn so much. Coming together on the day when they have just been learning the songs with a backing track in their school with classmates for 6 months, when they get into the Arena, in a world class Arena; they have a live band there in front of them, none of it is recorded it is all, every single note, played live, so they are in the band. They watch some of it like they are at a gig, for some it is the first time they have been to a gig so they are thinking :”Wow, I’m at a gig!” And for the rest of it they are the stars of that gig, they get really bigged up. It’s also a really incredible thing singing together, being part of a team. Even coming on the coaches to get here on the day is exciting; getting to their seats early, the atmosphere starts about 1 o’clock, and hour and a half before they even start the rehearsal. You can hear it. They sing to each other across the Arena. They might make friends with someone from another school that they’re sitting next to. Then the rehearsal starts and they learn all of the moves and to sing with everyone else.
You know, it’s not just all about the fun. It’s quite gruelling. They learn about stamina and responsibility through Young Voices. There’s so much for them to see, and watch and do when they are here. There’s lights, there’s cameras, there’s the stars on stage – you know they have so many people there to learn from. It’s hopefully very inspiring for them, and they will become aspiring thanks to this experience. We’ve had many artists work with us now, who tell us how they did Young Voices when they were 8 or 9, and now they are back on stage professionally. Of course we have been going for so long now that we have teachers tell us that they enjoyed doing Young Voices when they were at school! It really is so worthwhile on so many levels.
Having been a parent watching my boy rehearse for, take part in, and be so very enthusiastic about the experience with Young Voices, I can only echo those comments at the end. I would strongly recommend that if your school offers your child the chance to take part in Young Voices, grab it with both hands! And I, too, wish that Young Voices had been around when I was at school!
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