Greatly inspired by their involvement with Aberdeen International Youth Festival and Madison Youth Choirs (USA) with whom they have worked since 2014, ACE Voices Intergenerational Choir was launched in April during Global Intergenerational Week 2023, and performed for the first time in June alongside Madison Girls Choir as part of APA's Light The Blue Festival.  Ably led by Alec Thompson-Miller, Director of ACE Voices, and assisted by Rachel Fraser, Assistant Director, the choir runs on the work of volunteers and the generosity of donors with great thanks to Heathryburn Primary School, Twisting The Rainbow, Valerie Kemp and Amanda MacLeod of St Andrews Voices.

​

The ethos of the choir is that ‘everyone can join in at their own pace and in their own way that's best for them. Friendships can be nurtured between people no matter their ages.’ The aim is to make the choir as inclusive as possible, and so far, there are people who don't think they can sing, are very confident singers, read music, learn music by ear, are very nervous about social interaction, are autistic, experience brain injury, are dyslexic, have Down's Syndrome, communicate using Makaton, have ADHD, attend with different generations of their own family, have been involved in ACE Voices groups over many years, and who have just joined. Furthermore, the team are working towards laying the foundations to make the group accessible to people with dementia, hearing loss, and Developmental Language Disorder. To date, all decades from 0-10 to 70-80 are represented with people in their 80s-90s due to join after the summer. 

​

This choir is part of a broader family of community projects in Aberdeen and North-East of Scotland that come under the umbrella name of ACE Voices, founded by Alec Thompson-Miller in 2011 with the core aims of bringing people of all ages together in lots of creative, playful ways, connecting with nature, and empowering people to make their own unique differences in their communities. The name, ACE Voices, is inspired by one of its longest-running projects called Airyhall Choral Ensemble (ACE), which ran from 2011-2022, and was co-founded by Alec, Rachel, Valerie, Kathy and Alan Watt, and Caroline McLean.

​

​