Last year’s Friday Afternoons Big Sing saw over 700 young people from across Suffolk come together at the Snape Maltings Concert Hall on Friday 21 November to sing through a special programme of eight songs, handpicked from the Friday Afternoons song bank.

Five of the songs were brand-new submissions composed in 2025 as part of the Five Nations project, in which Britten Pears Arts commissioned a song co-written by a primary school and a composer in each nation of the British and Irish Isles. 

A firm favourite (according to our on-the-day survey) was The Witches, The Whale and The Blacksmith’s Tale – the submission from Scotland, written by composer Jon Hargreaves with Culross Primary School in Dunfermline. Its fascinating subject matter, drawing on local folk tales from the Witch Trials to the Plague to a modern-day mystery surrounding a whale that washed ashore, combined with a wonderfully catchy melody, made for the perfect Friday Afternoons song.

A particular highlight was hearing Benjamin Britten’s Old Abram Brown fill the concert hall to the rafters as the audience split into four groups to sing it as a round. It is a simple song of just four lines, set at a funeral march tempo, but it came alive in the hall; an unforgettable, spine-tingling experience that offered a glimpse of Britten’s vision when writing music for children.

Writing music with and for young voices is a special skill. We explored this in an on-stage interview with composer Raph Clarkson, who reflected on his own childhood and how singing in a group made him feel. He emphasised the significance of those early experiences and how they continue to inspire his approach when arranging these beautiful compositions.

The Friday Afternoons collection offers high-quality singing resources, all written within a comfortable range for children while still providing technical or thematic challenges. Notably, Song of the Sea does not shy away from emotional self-regulation: “take deep breaths, in and out, like the waves and the tide.” What better way for children to learn a life-long, self-soothing technique than by embodying it through song?

Hattie Coupe, Programme Manager (Children, Families and Young People) 
 

Missed out on the Friday Afternoons Big Sing?

Teachers can sign up for our free Digital Concert and learning resources, available to enjoy from the comfort of your classroom or school hall.

Register here:Friday Afternoons '5 Nations' Sing-Along - Norfolk & Suffolk Music Hub