Sing Up Dales brings together four singing groups in its local community. The groups are based in Teesdale, Weardale, Wear Valley and Spennymoor, and made up of children from Key Stages 2 and 3.

Working with Changeling Productions, each group is involved in four major collaborative singing works.

The Legion of the Lost 9th tells the story of a Roman legion that disappeared on route to Hadrian’s Wall.

Another production recreates a children’s version of Verdi’s opera Rigoletto, and is a showcase for the talents of many young people, with performances at community venues and schools around the Dales.

Songlines is a song cycle that builds as each group writes a ballad about life in their area. Each song inspires the creation of the next ballad as it moves to the next town or village, before being performed at agricultural shows across the district and beyond.

The fourth production is a major choral work in summer 2009, inspired by an ecovillage in Wearsdale.

All of the young people involved work alongside professional musicians, composers, singers, lyricists, designers, directors and local community members.

For more, visit www.changelingproductions.org.uk