Learn to swim!

After many years in education, Alan Simmons has spent the last 15 as a full time composer and publisher, specialising in choral music for adults and children. His works have been performed in some of the country’s most prestigious venues, including performances at The Proms, broadcast by the BBC.

In 2002 his cantata Farewell, Admirable Queen was performed for HM The Queen in Symphony Hall, Birmingham, by the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Youth Choir and Children’s Chorus. It was one of the main concerts for HM during Jubilee Year.

Alan has collaborated several times with internationally renowned opera singer Sir Thomas Allen, who is also very keen to promote choral singing for children. The latest collaboration was in a production of Alan’s stage musical, The King with Cold Feet, when Sir Thomas played The King, surrounded by dozens of children!

Bringing together children and adults in music, especially singing, has been a permanent goal in Alan’s work. His two large-scale choral works, The Beauchamp Gloria and The Great Fire of London, are good examples, because the children play a key role in each piece. They are on equal terms with the adult singers, not a small afterthought.

Alan has devoted a great deal of time and effort to encouraging boys to sing. For far too long singing for boys has lacked ‘street cred’. Starting in 1984 with his football piece, ‘Saturday Afternoon’, he’s done a great deal of work to banish that notion.

Alan now spends most of his time living in South West France where he has recently formed a choir consisting mainly of absolute beginners, drawn from 7 nationalities and now over 50 strong.

His publishing company still thrives in his absence, publishing hundreds of his songs. It can be contacted via the website www.alansimmonsmusic.com.

Audio information
The performance was recorded specially for the Sing Up programme by the Ex Cathedra Junior Academy, mixed and mastered by Krzys Webber. The backing track was created specially for the Sing Up programme by Simon Rogers. 

Copyright information
All copyright music in the Sing Up programme is used by permission. The songwriters and/or copyright holders have been remunerated under due licensing arrangements. Find out more about copyright by visiting the UK Music and Sound Rights websites.