BFCS is rooted in Bradford, and our community work reflects the city we serve.
We believe that everyone should have access to the connection and shared experience that music can bring — whether or not they have sung in a choir or attended a classical concert before.
Alongside our concert programme, we work with partners across the district to widen access to live music and create welcoming and inclusive musical experiences.
Bradford Friendship Choir
The Bradford Friendship Choir forms part of BFCS’s wider charitable and community activity, bringing together people from a wide range of backgrounds and experiences through singing and shared music-making, including sanctuary-seeking communities across Bradford. Read more below.
Welcoming New Audiences
BFCS also works alongside The Anchor Project and Bradford Friendship Choir to help welcome people to concerts who may not previously have felt that live classical music was accessible or “for them”.
This support goes beyond ticket access alone and includes building relationships, creating welcoming shared experiences and helping people feel comfortable and included within the wider BFCS community. At larger concerts, BFCS also provides a quiet room for anyone who may need a short break from the atmosphere of a busy venue.
The Anchor Project, based in Bradford BD3, supports wellbeing, skills, resilience and community connection through a wide range of activities including English classes, wellbeing groups and support for people seeking sanctuary.
Members of BFCS have also supported the charity’s Swap Your Shop initiative — a fundraising challenge raising awareness of food poverty and the realities faced by many people on very low incomes.
We believe music can play a small but meaningful role in building welcome, connection and belonging across our city.
Participation & Access
Alongside our main concert programme, BFCS supports opportunities for people to engage with singing and live music through:
- free and low-cost participation opportunities
- Come & Sing and Learn to Sing events
- young listeners resources for concerts
- intergenerational participation bringing together singers and audiences aged 16 to 94+
Our aim is simple: to use music to build connection, confidence and community across Bradford.
Music for refugees and those seeking asylum
BFCS supports Bradford Friendship Choir for refugees, people seeking asylum and their friends. It meets every Tuesday in central Bradford and is a joyful singing sanctuary, open to all kinds of people. The choir’s focus is on welcoming and supporting refugees and people seeking asylum, and celebrating diversity through the power of song. Have a look at the website or email the choir at bradfordfriendshipchoir@gmail.com
In 2021 we were awarded an Arts Council project grant to support community music-making in Bradford. As a way of commemorating this part of our shared journey, the choirs have collaborated to make recordings of two songs chosen by The Friendship Choir. Jikelele is a South African celebration song and means ‘everywhere’ or ‘universal’. Here Is My Home is an American folk song traditionally sung at Thanksgiving.
We dedicate these joint performances to Maggie Eisner who founded Bradford Friendship Choir and was, until her recent ill-health, Chair of Trustees for Bradford Festival Choral Society. You can find these recordings at the bottom of this page, please enjoy and share.
Bradford Friendship Choir Guest Artist Series
Thanks to funding from Arts Council England, The Bradford Friendship Choir has been able to invite a visiting artist to lead a series of workshops. Their first guest was Thabo Mkwananzi. As a Zimbabwean born and Huddersfield based musician, THABO’s soulful approach to subjects like climate change and other social ills give his music a unique charm and purpose. This has earned him collaborations with Naughty Boy, Idris Elba and opening act duties for musicians like Seal, Anthony Hamilton and Dwele. We look forward to welcoming more artists into the Bradford Friendship Choir in the future! Please enjoy the video at the bottom of this page which gives some insight into the work Thabo did with the choir. Videographer – Tom Doona Media
One City, Many Voices
In Summer 2015, with a grant from Bradford Council, we organised One City, Many Voices – Bradford Sings! as part of the Bradford Festival. Over a weekend, eleven choirs sang around the city in venues such as Bradford Interchange, Waterstone’s, Forster Square, Kirkgate Market, the Media Museum, the Arndale Centre and City Park. BFCS was joined by Belle Vue Girls’ School choir, BIASAN singers (refugees and their friends), Bradford Voices, Carlton Bolling College Choir, Free Spirit Ladies’ Choir, Noteworthy Women, Opus 44, Pennine Chimes, Queensbury Singers, and Steeton Male Voice Choir.
Preparing for that event, we used part of the Council grant to provide additional singing tuition at Belle Vue and Carlton Bolling schools, and at BIASAN, the organisation which supports refugees and asylum seekers. We were able to continue this for some months in the following year.
Bradford Council and the Lord Mayor’s Office
We are delighted that our Patron is the Lord Mayor of Bradford! In May 2016 we sang at the Dragonboat Festival, supporting the Lord Mayor’s appeal, and in December 2016 and 2017 entertained the guests at the Lord Mayor’s Christmas lunch.
We often sing at Bradford Council events – including, in the recent past, Carmina Burana in Bradford CityPark in summer 2014, our One City Many Voices at the Bradford Festival in summer 2015, and Christmas carols in the historic setting of Bolling Hall in December 2015. We were involved in the Council’s development of a workplace choir and most recently performed at the community reopening of St George’s Hall.
