On Thursday 7th August, BBC Radio Cambridgeshire’s Sue Dougan invited the Creative Director of Historyworks and Producer for Cycle of Songs, Helen Weinstein, to celebrate the achievements of the project and to raise awareness of the digital legacy in the app and website resources. Accordingly Helen Weinstein brought a pile of the Cycle of Songs app/maps to the BBC Reception to share with the staff at BBC Cambridgeshire and with those visiting studios over the next weeks.

At 2pm, Helen Weinstein was due on air to join BBC Presenter, Sue Dougan for the hour-long show called “Chat Room” for which Helen had agreed to talk about working with our partners Pilot Theatre, international leaders for transformative digital experiences in the Arts – describing the legacies - both the future opportunities for individuals to continue singing together as a community in Cambridge – and for the pieces from Cycle of Songs to be enjoyed in perpetuity via the website, film, app.

Sue Dougan opened by asking Helen Weinstein, how she could best summarize what it had meant for the community to get behind Cycle of Songs and join in with such numbers to learn new pieces to sing together. The discussion focussed on the fun at The Fitzwilliam Museum for three hundred singers coming together to serenade the public and the cyclists. Sue also remarked on the photograph that had widely circulated showing the winner from the Tour de France stage 3, Marc Kittel, looking up from the road in wonder at the Cycle of Songs choir as he cycled with his team past the Fitz.



Sue Dougan was very keen to learn how Helen Weinstein had brought the vision of the project together with the guidance of the Artistic Director, Marcus Romer, - of working with artists, historians, local choirs and singers to produce the nine new songs along the route. As an example, Helen described the ‘Reality Checkpoint’ song and the research she had uncovered about the naming of Parker’s Piece and the range of activities the community had enjoyed there from feasting to skipping to cricket, and how this initial research in January had made her all the more eager to amplify the range of gripping stories about Cambridge she had found in the bid phase for the project with her colleagues at Historyworks and Pilot Theatre. Once the project was all go, Helen talked about hearing from The Dowsing Sound Collective via twitter, and their enthusiasm for singing history about the places around Cambridge where choirs are based, and this had led to the matchmaking of Helen with choir leader and composer, Andrea Cockerton. Sue remarked how she has had Andrea on the show many times but talking about her composing would be a new element and this led neatly into the “Reality Checkpoint” track to be played out on air, performed by the wonderful 120 members of The Dowsing Sound Collective, composed and conducted by Andrea Cockerton.

Following on from another taster from the app album tracks, Helen was keen to underline that there was a free app, and a tour of Cambridge available to download as a digital legacy for everyone to enjoy in Cambridge. Sue and Helen reminded the audience that all the tracks and the history stories can be found at cycle of songs dot com, and that the instructions for the app can be downloaded there too.

Also, Sue asked Helen about what would be happening next to follow on from the success of the Cycle of Songs, and Helen talked about the opportunities for Cycle of Songs singers and musicians to participate in new musical experiences. Namely, this Saturday, Cambridge Junction has organized an excellent event in Romsey at the Hope Street Yard called “One Song, One Gig” which many Cycle of Songs musicians and singers have signed up for. And although this opportunity was now full, people can go along to hear the performances at the end of the day. Details on the CoS website. Also, Helen explained in more detail how there was a great new project coming up in the Autumn, called “Your Song” at the Cambridge University Music Faculty to which everyone in Cambridgeshire was invited to join.

It would be run similarly to the Cycle of Songs ‘pop up’ Choir, with a series of free rehearsals for a ‘scratch choir’ in September and October, leading up to the performance of a wonderful choral work called “Zimbe” on 29th October. Many of the Cycle of Songs choir members are taking up the invitation to continue singing and are going to sign up to join “Your Song”, and we hope that the earlier rehearsal times will attract even more singers and their families to turn up to the Music Faculty to join in. Again, it was underlined in this broadcast that all these opportunities are listed on the Cycle of Songs website, so this is where BBC Cambs recommended listeners to visit to find out more about Cycle of Songs and the legacy projects. Helen thanked Sue for such a fun time on air, and we agreed to meet up in the BBC Cambrigeshire Chat Room again this Autumn, to play some of the “Zimbe” choral tracks as an invitation before rehearsals start for “Your Song” this September.