'Dizzy with excitement,bubbling like bubbly, it makes you jump for joy!'

The Carousel Singers is the choir at the heart of Gold Run. It is made up of 30 young people, mainly between the ages of 16 and 25, who all have a learning disability. The Carousel Singers started singing together after meeting through taster sessions back in January 2011 and have been rehearsing together every week since March 2011.

During rehearsals, the choir and the artistic team worked together to make up words for the big emotional moments in the story. They then sat round the piano and found ways to sing the words. For each song, they thought about what emotion or message they wanted the audience to have. So the style of each song is different - we have reggae numbers, lots of power rock, ballads and much more. James Redwood, our Choir Leader and Conductor, took the songs away and orchestrated them so that the band could play the music for the production.

The piece:

Gold Run tells the story of a group of athletes training for the Olympics and being guided by The Coach. But he has a dark past - he cheated when he was a young man and when The Athletes find out, they are disgusted with him. Finally they find a way of forgiving him and they train to go on and win Olympic Medals.

The music is exciting, uplifting, emotional, expressive, thought-provoking and foot-tapping. The choir love singing their material and so does David. This is going to be an engaging, dramatic, entertaining performance.

Performers:

Carousel Singers: a non-auditioned choir for learning-disabled adults. Created after drop-in taster workshops. The choir have written all of their own songs (words and music).

David Rushbrook: a learning-disabled opera singer based in Dagenham. David wrote his words and music.

Band: Clarinet, trumpet, piano, percussion, double bass. Professional musicians who will come together with the singers in the new year, playing music arranged by James Redwood.