'The human voice is the first instrument': Birmingham choir set for hometown show

The Birmingham-based singers now tour the world as Europe’s finest female a cappella quintet.

For over 30 years, Black Voices have performed distinctive vocal harmonies to an eclectic mix of music from jazz to pop, reggae to gospel, and blues to African and English folk.

Black Voices – consisting of Carol Pemberton, her daughter Shereece Storrod, Sandra Francis, Beverley Robinson and Celia Wickham-Anderson – have shared a stage with music greats from Ray Charles to Nina Simone, Miriam Makeba and Take 6, even recently opening for Beverley Knight at Warwick Arts Centre. And they’ll be back in Birmingham on June 21 with a headline at the city’s Symphony Hall.

“The human voice is the first instrument,” explains Carol. “When it’s not supported by other sounds and instruments in a cappella, the raw emotion hits instantly.

“Messages are more hard-hitting and as five black women with powerful voices delivering a cappella, it’s got impact.”

“We were backing singers, doing gigs, getting a fiver at the end of night, squashing up in back of the van with the equipment and moving on to the next thing,” recalls Carol.

“That’s how our singing together in harmony and being tight (on vocals) came about – but it was never enough. We weren’t a significant part of any bands we supported. We enjoyed it but backing singers are so underrated.”

Inspired to set up Black Voices after seeing American female a cappella group Sweet Honey in the Rock in Liverpool, they then chose songs true to their life.

“The harmonies, rhythm and the way Sweet Honey were so immaculately dressed, it was something we’d never seen before,” recalls Carol. “We thought Britain needs something like this and the brand of a cappella we now bring isn’t here in the UK.”

Carol, thinking back to that time in 1987, adds: “For any migrant community in the UK there are periods in your life here when you draw on your roots, culturally. We are the children of the Windrush generation, and at some point during your life, issues of race and prejudice rear their ugly head.

“It was a period when the apartheid in South Africa was in the news daily. When we launched Black Voices, the song that seemed to fit the moment that described where we were coming from, who we were and our ambition was Something Inside So Strong. That was the first song we learned and performed as Black Voices.”

It’s a song Black Voices still sing today, along with complicated, technical arrangements of popular tracks, ranging from Edith Piaf to South African traditional Zulu and Xhosa, collected during their time in that country.

Their shows have an eclectic mix to suit everyone, drawing on the singers’ classical, African and Caribbean roots while highlighting them as musicians as well as vocalists.

While a cappella is seen as a specialist musical form rather than mainstream in the UK, Shereece Storrod, artistic director for Black Voices, has noticed an underground culture of a cappella clubs like in TV show Glee at universities, some of which she has judged in music competitions.

Black Voices keep in with the next generation, partly through community outreach programmes in schools, universities and children’s homes in Birmingham and nationwide.

As Associate Artists for Birmingham Town Hall and Symphony Hall, Black Voices perform regularly in its concert halls and are involved with its learning and development programmes like Community Spirit, now in its tenth year.

Black Voices are scheduled to play a key part in Community Spirit in June, which gives local community choirs the chance to share repertoire and perform together in a large-scale concert at Symphony Hall.“Community Spirit brings together 300 to 600 voices from choirs around Birmingham who can learn from each other and perform with Black Voices and guest artists in a concert in Symphony Hall,” explained Carol, who was awarded an MBE for her contribution to music in 2014. “Plus, each choir gets the chance to perform in the most prestigious concert hall in Europe.”

“We also do outreach work in schools. Not many schools have an orchestra anymore, not many have a choir and they don’t sing together in assembly - those things have gone”, adds Carol, who played cello in the Schools Orchestra after going to King’s Heath Primary School.

“But singing has real benefits. Lots of children build confidence through it, it’s a great form of expression, a chance to work in a group and learn about teamwork.

“We work in prisons and with people who don’t have any creative engagement or expression and it’s really moving to see what music does for them. Those experiences mean more because it’s helping people, like music therapy.

“When I look back over music and the records I bought coming into adulthood, I know exactly what I was going through in my life at that time - your music is a song diary of your life.

“While we’ve met some incredible people - from the Pope to The Queen and most of the Royal family - you can’t beat the intimate connection with a small audience. Where you see they have enjoyed it and talk to them afterwards and understand what it’s done for them.”

Shereece, who produces the shows, explained that Black Voices aim to spread a positive vibe of love through their music: “I don’t want anybody to ever come to a Black Voices concert and leave feeling the same way.

“By the time you leave our concert, you should feel differently – whether it’s made you think about something, moved or uplifted you.

“Our shows are all about being happy and joyous. Our message is we are all stronger together.” For more information about Community Spirit, visit https://www.thsh.co.uk/projects/community-spirit