Help Me Believe (Vocal Score)

Other Info: Created from workshops with members of the Grenfell Community and Opera Holland Park Inspire Project in 2018.

Opera Holland Park marked the one year anniversary of the Grenfell disaster with a special gala performance, raising money for the Rugby Portobello Trust. A choir of 200 children and adults from the community, alongside the opera chorus, performed ‘Help Me Believe’ – a new piece commissioned by Opera Holland Park with words and music by Will Todd and Gareth Malone.

The gala was given in memory of Debbie Lamprell, who was a member of Opera Holland Park's staff when she died in the Grenfell fire, and for all victims and their families and friends.

Created through a series of workshops as part of OHP's Inspire Project, the song is meaningful to the members of the community, who helped write the words, describing their hopes for the future and their desire for remembrance. The funds raised by the memorial concert enabled more than 100 children and young people from North Kensington to attend ‘residential’ trips, week-long visits to the coast and countryside, which allow them to try new activities and escape the pressures of everyday life.

In the short clip, you can see the emotion in the faces of children who had lost friends, and who remembered their loved ones through the music and lyrics. Although tearful, the song gave the children and members of the community a chance to stand together, strong and supportive, and commemorate loved ones, hand in hand. Nobody who saw this performance will forget it.

The community members, children, their parents and their schools have all authorised the release of this footage and wish for people to see their performance and hear their song.