Hear more from the England winner and runner up

Peterborough Male Voice Choir were the winners of the Epic Award for England, as well as being voted top in the People’s Choice award.

“This is such an honour for us” said Secretary, Andy Coles: “I was so pleased to hear that the choir’s work has been recognised by such a significant arts body.  We have had two unprecedented years of growth for the Male Voice Choir, and we have also been involved in the formation of two more choirs – Our ladies’ choir Peterborough Voices, and the Peterborough Youth Choir.  We were up against fierce competition from the other English shortlisted groups.”

The choir took a great leap of faith in 2010 when it began the New Directions programme, led by their Director, Will Prideaux.  Last year he took the choir to the Cornwall International Male Voice Choral Festival, achieving third in their class, whilst he received a special award for his contribution to choral conducting.

“Now we can say that our award winning Director is now conducting three award winning choirs!” joked Andy.

“It’s really great for the city”, said Director Will Prideaux, “We are pleased to be leading the voluntary arts sector in England and it is a feather in the cap for Peterborough. This award recognises our work in engaging with our local community to provide a chance for men, women and young people to access professional training, develop their skills and perform at a high level”.

Chairman, Peter Larke, said “I am very proud to hear that the choir has won the Epic Award for England: but we won’t rest on our laurels.  We have a busy year in our calendar, with a number of projects, including two local music festivals, a series of concerts ranging from Faure’s requiem to ‘The Best of British’; another ‘Sing for Life’ concert recruitment for Peterborough Voices and a new project team to develop our youth choirs – the work continues”.

Peterborough Male Voice Choir website

Unanima Theatre came second in England, and also notched up an impressive 13526 votes in the People’s Choice award! Creative Director Jayne Lewis commented: “This was the first award nomination for Unanima Theatre so we were delighted to be shortlisted. To go on and win a 2nd place Epic Award from the expert panel vote is a fantastic achievement. But also being runners up of the People’s Choice, with 13,500 votes, closely behind a well-established group with hundreds of members is amazing for a project from a small town in Nottinghamshire. The Epic Awards have hugely raised the profile of Unanima Theatre, both regionally and nationally, gaining recognition from Voluntary Arts England. We would urge any voluntary arts organisations and projects across the UK to get involved.

We would like to The Minster School and Southwell Care Project. Thank you to Nottinghamshire County Council and Arts Council England. Special thanks to all of our wonderful participants, performers, voters, promoters, supporters and dear friends who give us the inspiration to share, connect, communicate and create unique theatre and film. We shall all celebrate together and look forward to our exciting new play in March.”

Unanima are busy preparing for their next production, Horace, about a man with a chance to make all his dreams come true! The show will be performed on 21st and 22nd March and tickets are available now. Visit the Unanima Theatre website for more information.