15 Years of SING! – How Singing Together Strengthens Berlin’s Schools

For 15 years, SING! – the educational programme of the Rundfunkchor Berlin – has been bringing communal singing back into Berlin’s primary schools. What began in 2011 as a pilot project with just a few schools is now a firmly established pillar of cultural education in Berlin: sustainable, accessible, and deeply embedded in everyday school life.

2026 is a very special year for SING!: we are celebrating our 15th anniversary! A decade and a half of singing together with Berlin schoolchildren is reason to look back, say thank you – and, above all, to look ahead. In our anniversary year, we invite you to engage with SING! even more closely: through special activities, musical moments, encounters, and fresh impulses centered on singing together. We will keep you regularly informed about all of it – on the SING! website, via our social media channels, and in the SING! newsletter. Subscribe to the SING! newsletter now and celebrate our anniversary year with us.

What has happened so far

The idea for SING! goes back to Simon Halsey, Honorary Conductor of the Rundfunkchor Berlin, who was inspired by the successful British model Sing Up. From the first few partner schools, a strong network has grown over the past decade and a half: 38 Berlin primary schools have taken part in SING! to date. Each school year, 600 to 800 children sing regularly in SING! choirs, supported by around 70 dedicated educators who take part in weekly training sessions to learn how to use their voices consciously and to guide children in singing with expertise and enthusiasm.

SING! is free of charge and low-threshold – singing takes place without sheet music, but with plenty of movement. The multilingual song repertoire reflects the children’s everyday realities while also supporting language acquisition. Singing has a positive effect on personal development and social skills, and has been shown to strengthen children’s self-confidence as well as the cohesion of the school community.

In addition, SING! enables direct encounters between children and the professional singers of the Rundfunkchor Berlin through rehearsal visits and school visits by patron singers. A special highlight is the Liederbörse (a sing-along concert for schools by the Rundfunkchor Berlin) in the Great Hall of the Berlin Philharmonie, where each year, alongside two SING! schools, around 12 Berlin primary school choirs join the Rundfunkchor Berlin to create a shared concert experience.

The secret of SING!’s success lies in its sustainable approach: schools are supported continuously over a period of three years. During the project, school concert formats and musical rituals become established and continue even after the SING! project phase ends. Many teachers are so well trained after the three years that they go on to found new choirs at their schools to carry on the choral work.

“Today is the first performance of our newly founded school choir! We currently have almost 60 singing children! For us, this is a huge success and clearly the result of our collaboration with you!”
(Teacher at the Märkische Primary School after completing the SING! project)

The jury of the Junge Ohren Preis aptly described SING!:
“SING! has everything that makes a successful participatory project: it is designed for the long term. It is extremely contemporary, truly rooted in society – it is right at the heart of things.”
(Ute Legner, jury member, Junge Ohren Preis, SWR)

With thanks for the support

SING! is made possible through the generous support of the Ernsting Kunst- & Kulturstiftung, the Berlin Senate Department for Culture and Social Cohesion and the Freunde und Förderer des Rundfunkchores Berlin e.V.