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- Gareth Malone, choirmaster of the London Symphony Orchestra St. Luke's Community Choir in London, believes that every child should sing in a choir. He sees it as an invaluable team and confidence building experience, as well as a venue to be exposed to great music. As such, he chooses Northolt High School, a regular comprehensive in working class Middlesex without a choral program history, within which to develop a 25 member mixed choir. His goal is for the choir to compete at the World Choir Games in China in nine months time. He has 1,300 potential choristers, but has to find the right mix of students who not only can sing harmony, but have the dedication to see the process through the nine months. Beyond the application and selection process for the World Choir Games, Gareth has some challenges in keeping the group motivated, especially if they are not chosen to go to China. Two of the motivation challenges are with music selection in that they are required to sing two classical songs, music which is foreign to most of the students, and at least one song in a language other than English. He also faces some challenges vocally, especially with the bass clef voices, which can be difficult with boys whose voices are just going through the change, and convincing older boys, who may now be comfortable with their new voices, that singing in a choir is an enjoyable experience.
- Gareth arrives at Northolt High School to begin the choir development process. Despite the school having no choral music tradition, he receives 161 applicants - 117 girls and 44 boys - from the approximately 1,300 member student body. He needs not only to find the 30 best singers, but sufficient numbers for each of the four parts, which becomes an issue especially for the bass clef voices as few of those boys applying have had their voice change. During the audition process, he discovers that many have beautiful voices, but at this stage of their vocal history are purely trying to mimic popular music singers and their songs, especially in the R&B genre. Before he announces the 30, he must check the status of a few which may dismiss them from the choir. After announcing the 30 members, who collectively are now called the Phoenix Choir, Gareth has a deadline in four week's time (seven rehearsals): record a submission CD to the World Choir Games selection committee. He has to get the choir to a point where the submission will impress him and the selection committee enough to be chosen to attend the competition in China seven months later. Beyond issues with learning the music, Gareth has problems with one perpetually absent choir member, and a brother and sister dealing with a family issue. To get the choir inspired and as a bonding exercise, Gareth takes them on a field trip to the Barbican Theatre in London to experience what it's like to stand on an auditorium stage to perform, and so that they can all spend some quality time getting to know each other.