We were delighted to receive funding from the National Lottery Community Fund to help support our work for the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee Beacons Song for the Commonwealth.

The project ran for over a year already, and we were delighted to receive help to ensure this once-in-a-lifetime event was able to run as smoothly as possible.

The Commonwealth Resounds is run entirely by volunteers who work tirelessly to try and help make a difference. We receive no central funding for our work and the difference this support from the Community Fund made to our project was huge. We linked up choirs with hundreds of beacons throughout the UK and across the Commonwealth. With this number of participants, the logistics and administration were quite a challenge for a small charity like ourselves – but we managed it!

The Royal Commonwealth Society hosted the first-ever Charity Gala Concert by musicians from The Commonwealth Resounds! in their brand-new auditorium in November 2005.

Arter this, Stuart Mole, Director-General of the RCS till 2009 and other members of the organisation have supported developments of the programme and included Commonwealth Resounds! musicians in events such as Commonwealth Observance Day and the Queen’s visit to the Official Opening of the new Auditorium in 2008.

In November 2009, the new Director of the RCS, Danny Shrishkandarajah and Chi Kavindele, the Events Manager generously enabled The Commonwealth Resounds! to run a dazzling Pre-CHOGM Gala event at the Commonwealth Club. Many distinguished members of the audence greatly enjoyed the performances and presentations.

Since that time, the Royal Commonwealth Society has enabled The Commonwealth Resounds to perform in many fascinating, high profile events such as the Commonwealth Carol Service and Prince Charles’s Dinner for the High Commissioners at St James’s Palace, Pall Mall, both in 2013.

The Commonwealth Resounds will be strongly featured in Commonwealth Observance Day 2015 as part of its 10th Anniversary Celebrations. For this special event, the Commonwealth Festival Orchestra and Choir will be collaborating with Sarah Ndagire from Uganda and Dance Digital from Hertfordshire.

The Royal Over-Seas League first supported The Commonwealth Resounds in 2007 by sending two brilliant young musicians, both ROSL Annual Music competition prize winners, Victoria Mavromousakis (Cyprus) and Meherban Gillett (India) to participate in concerts, masterclasses and workshops. These musicians were an enormous asset to the programme. Since this time, Roderick Lakin MBE, the ROSL’s Director of Arts has regularly incuded two or more of the ROSL’s prizewinning young musicians in every biennial international project, and in many of the UK-based ones too. He also supports, guides and advises members of The Commonwealth Resounds in project development and management as the organistion continues to grow and develop.

The Royal Over-Seas League also hosted the European Premiere of the world’s first Commonwealth PIANORAMA in the Princess Alexandra Hall in January 2010. Roderick has also facilitated a number of excellent biennial Pre-CHOGM Gala Concerts at Princess Alexandra House.

The Commonwealth Foundation generously provided a core grant for The Commonwealth Resounds! to develop musical programmes in Uganda in November 2007. This enabled the following projects take place and participants involved to secure additional funding.

The Choral programme – directed by Joy Hill
The Diverity of the Flute – directed by Keith Waithe
Commonwealth Youth Resounds! in partnership with the British Council and the London Sinfonietta
The Tabla Project – directed by Yogesh Dattani
A Thanksgiving for Peace – in partnership with the scheme Churches Together for CHOGM, the Royal Commonwealth Society and CPAUG
The Instrument making programme – directed by Dr Peter Cooke and Martin Wess
The Commonwealth Bands Together – directed by Peter Harvey

The Royal Society of St George has kindly support a number of individuals taking part in a variety of Commonwealth Resounds! events including Malta 2015 and Matthew and Jenny’s trip to Goa, India.

The Trinidad and Tobago Entertainment Company (T&T Ent) is a state agency under the Ministry of Trade and Industry, responsible for facilitating the development of a globally competitive entertainment industry. They were asked to look after the needs of The Commonwealth Resounds in Trinidad, and to organise a programme of workshops, concerts, projects and performances in close consultation with the CHOGM Task Force and Alison Cox, TCR’s Founder and Musical Director.

Kamla Ramparsad de Silva, Tatiana Parrott, Malene Joseph and a wonderful team of dedicated volunteers worked immensely hard to give the international musicians a fulfilling and rewarding experience during their visit. As well as organising the rich varied programme of musical events, they also provided everyone with a welcome bag full of lovely souvenirs from Trinidad!

The Government of Malta generously supported the inaugural performances of The Commonwealth Resounds!

We are especially grateful to Dr.Francis Zammit-Dimech, the Minister for Tourism, Sport and Culture, who dedicated a public address to the international musicians and sponsored all transport in Malta and Gozo for them throughout CHOGM. On Tuesday November 23rd 2005 .

Dr Zammit Dimech also arranged a special welcome concert for the Cyprus State Orchestra at the University of Malta, conducted by Simon Wills featuring the Maltese tenor Joseph Aquilina and the celebrated Australian pianist Simon Tedeschi. The concert was immaculately and professionally organised by Michael Aquilina and was not only a great success, but also generated a friendly cultural exchange between Cyprus and Malta.

Multicultural projects and partnerships in Malta during CHOGM 2005.

Malta 2005 – the Souvenir Programme.

Alison Cox first met John Smith, President of FIM and General Secretary, British Musicians’ Union (UK) in early 2007, when seeking to identify new partnerships for The Commonwealth Resounds! Much common ground between the two organisations was quickly identified, and a number of different proposals were discussed for CHOGM 2007. Thanks to financial support from Phonographic Performance Ltd., John and his team were able to run highly successful Music Business Seminars in Kampala and again in Trinidad as part of CHOGM 2009.

In November 2013, The Commonwealth Resounds was able to collaborate with FIM and the MU to run the first-ever Commonwealth Music Business Seminar for young people in Sri Lanka. Young musicians from Sri Lanka, the UK and other parts of the Commonwealth met and discussed issues of importance to them, including musical opportunities and educational programmes. Together, they produced a Young Musicians’ Communique which was submitted by FIM and the MU to all the Commonwealth Heads of Government for consideration. We are all hoping to continue developing this kind of partnership in future Commonwealth events.