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The ´óÏó´«Ã½, led by ´óÏó´«Ã½ Radio 3, and English National Opera (ENO) today launch Sing Hallelujah, a UK-wide project which encourages people to find their voice and discover the joy of singing through Handel's famous Hallelujah Chorus.

This year marks the 250th anniversary year of Handel's death and everyone from beginners to established choirs is invited to learn the Hallelujah Chorus, with the help of the ´óÏó´«Ã½ and ENO, and encouraged to perform the work during November and December.

Sing Hallelujah is the culmination of Radio 3's Composers Of The Year, a year-long celebration of four composers, including Handel, each of whom had notable anniversaries in 2009.

The project has also been inspired by Deborah Warner's new production of Messiah at ENO, which opens in November and is broadcast by Radio 3 on Christmas Day.

Radio 3 and ENO are each dedicated to bringing classical music to a wider public and this collaboration, with support from ´óÏó´«Ã½ Learning, brings together their valuable resources of experience and knowledge of singing. From 1750 onwards, Handel performed Messiah annually to raise money for the children of the Foundling Hospital. In this spirit, the project encourages donations from performances and events to ´óÏó´«Ã½ Children In Need.

Radio 3 officially marks the launch of the project on air on Sunday 6 September with a live broadcast of Messiah at the ´óÏó´«Ã½ Proms by a unique massed choir of young voices from around the UK.

The project is supported by extensive coverage on the ´óÏó´«Ã½ and regular broadcasts presented by Aled Jones on Radio 3 in The Choir, from late-September.

´óÏó´«Ã½ local and national radio will also be inviting individuals and choirs to be part of Sing Hallelujah by encouraging singers to get together in their workplaces, schools and communities to perform the Hallelujah Chorus and to record and upload their versions to the website.

A dedicated website, bbc.co.uk/sing, will provide a range of innovative and newly-commissioned content to help newcomers to singing to develop their skills and knowledge, while providing a national platform for choirs performing the full Messiah. This is in addition to ´óÏó´«Ã½ archive material, including tutorials led by Gareth Malone, Suzy Digby and Rebecca Lodge.

On 27 November, ENO opens a new production of Messiah, directed by Deborah Warner, conducted by Handel expert Laurence Cummings. The cast includes Sophie Bevan, Catherine Wyn-Rogers, John Mark Ainsley and Brindley Sherratt.

A special Sing Hallelujah weekend (5/6 December) provides opportunities for beginners and enthusiastic amateurs to participate in two ´óÏó´«Ã½/ENO events in Glasgow (5 December) and London (6 December). Singers of all abilities will join together to learn and perform the famous Hallelujah Chorus, led by Sue Hollingworth, with the help of the ´óÏó´«Ã½ and ENO.

Roger Wright, Controller Radio 3 and Director ´óÏó´«Ã½ Proms, says: "This partnership with ENO builds upon several recent Radio 3 initiatives, which have encouraged UK-wide music-making, and reflect the station's aim to share its love of music and performance.

"Earlier this year, as part of Composers Of The Year, over 100 choirs participated in the Radio 3 weekend marking 200 years since Mendelssohn's birth. We now look forward to Sing Hallelujah, as the climax to our festivities celebrating Handel in his anniversary year."

John Berry, ENO Artistic Director, says: "We are thrilled to be collaborating with the ´óÏó´«Ã½ on such a distinctive project with the shared ambition to take singing to a wider audience. Handel's Messiah has always been about the joy of singing and a community spirit and it is therefore the perfect way to engage amateur singers through online and live participation. Culminating with our new staging of Messiah at the Coliseum, directed by Deborah Warner, we hope the next three months will take audiences on an exciting journey."

Liz Cleaver, Controller, ´óÏó´«Ã½ Learning, says: “´óÏó´«Ã½ Learning is delighted to be working in partnership with Radio 3 and English National Opera to encourage many more people to get involved in singing.

"Sing Hallelujah builds on the third series of the Bafta award-winning programme The Choir, broadcast on ´óÏó´«Ã½ Two this September. The message is clear – that singing can bring communities together and change people's lives. With creative singing events for beginners and new interactive resources, we hope thousands of people will feel inspired to find their voice this autumn"

Notes to Editors

Radio 3's The Choir, presented by Aled Jones, is on a summer break during the ´óÏó´«Ã½ Proms. It will return on Sunday 20 September at 6.30pm.

Prom 68 – Handel's Messiah
Sunday 6 September
6.30pm ´óÏó´«Ã½ Radio 3
Northern Sinfonia
Nicholas McGegan, conductor
Dominique Labelle, soprano
Patricia Bardon, mezzo-soprano
John Mark Ainsley, tenor
Matthew Rose, bass

Twenty Minutes
7.25-7.45pm ´óÏó´«Ã½ Radio 3
National Singing Ambassador Howard Goodall talks to Penny Gore about why singing matters, while Georgia Mann reports from today's ´óÏó´«Ã½ Proms Singing Day.

Sing Hallelujah joins additional ´óÏó´«Ã½ programmes celebrating choral singing this autumn with the launch of a new series of The Choir on ´óÏó´«Ã½ Two, beginning on 1 September, and, on ´óÏó´«Ã½ Four, How A Choir Works.

The Choir – Unsung Town
Tuesday 1 September
9.00pm ´óÏó´«Ã½ Two

Gareth Malone has proved that singing can take a group of kids who have never sung before all the way to the Choir Olympics. He has proved that boys can sing, take pride in it and perform at London's Royal Albert Hall. But can singing lift the spirits of an entire community? The charismatic choirmaster from the Bafta-winning series The Choir is back, and about to face his biggest challenge yet, in a new four-part series.

South Oxhey is a sprawling housing estate, just outside Watford. It has had a troubled past and, to this day, many people in the surrounding neighbourhoods see it as a strictly 'no go' area.

South Oxhey has no tradition of singing beyond pub karaoke, but Gareth makes it his mission to turn the area into a centre of choral excellence. He wants to draw in people from every section of the community, from children to OAPs, and create one vast choir that will truly represent South Oxhey and at last give the area a voice. His final challenge is to put on a major performance in South Oxhey itself, and invite the whole estate invited to the party. But will South Oxhey take singing to its heart?

The Choir Revisited
Tuesday 29 September
9.00pm ´óÏó´«Ã½ Radio 3

In 2007, choirmaster Gareth Malone took a teaching position at one of the largest all-boys comprehensives in the country. He wanted to prove that singing could be a positive and enjoyable activity for boys.

When Gareth arrived at the school singing was a dirty word but, over two terms, Gareth battled entrenched attitude, building a 100-strong choir up from nothing – until they were good enough to perform at London's Royal Albert Hall.

Now, exactly one year after he left, Gareth is returning to the school to catch up with his former choir members and see if his time there had any permanent impact.

TH2