Nightingale Choir

With generous support from the King’s College London Annual Fund an exciting and innovative project ran throughout the Summer of 2007. The choir project aimed at promoting the ‘voice’ of nursing and midwifery within King’s and on other local and national platforms, in both a political and physical sense. In collaboration with Mary King, director of voice at the London’s international arts venue the Southbank Centre, a choir of nursing and midwifery students and staff from the Florence Nightingale School was formed. Mary directed a series of four workshops in July, and two in September 2007 in preparation for a number of performances.

The choir performed to the new intake of first years and in a valedictory celebration with the outgoing graduates. In addition to this students were encouraged to take part in the voice labs at the Southbank Centre, where they could take part in performances as part of the re-opening of the Royal Festival Hall (RFH). Furthermore, the RFH invited participants to a performance of Carmen Jones. The participants had the opportunity to be trained by the UK’s leading vocal coach and to develop their voices; the voice being a primary tool of both nursing and teaching. In addition to introducing students and staff to international arts organisations in London – making the most of the location of King’s College London, the project stimulated students’ interest in the many musical and dramatic societies at King’s – an area where student nurses and midwives are currently underrepresented.