A GROUP of Weymouth singers will be performing alongside hundreds of others at the opening ceremony of the Olympics.

Coastal Voices is a unique project involving hundreds of singers from Dorset, Devon and London culminating in a performance at the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games.

Residents of Littlemoor will be singing in the ceremony on Weymouth Beach on July 27 with their group Moor Voices, which was started by a musical couple from the area.

Grazina and John Ellis, of Springfield Road, started the ensemble after the success of their other group, One Voice Weymouth, which they formed in 2006 and now has more than 30 members.

Mr Ellis said: “When we started One Voice it was as a Littlemoor choir but then as it grew it became all of Weymouth, but we live so close to Littlemoor and have so many friends there that we wanted to start a group just from this area.

“When the Coastal Voices opportunity came along it seemed like the perfect thing to get Littlemoor singing again.”

He added: “It’s all about getting music involved in the community.

“We’ve had three rehearsals so far and the group is really starting to develop so I decided to put in for funding from Synergy.”

Synergy’s Zone3 Neighbour-hood Panel and Big4 Littlemoor lottery funding have provided £6,477 funding for the choir to cover the costs of rehearsals.

Mr Ellis said: “We’ve had such a good response and now that we’ve had our funding approved we’re thinking of keeping the group going on a long-term basis.

“It’s really taken off – we’re delighted that everything has worked out so well.

“We’ve recently formed a committee who decided on the name Moor Voices and set up a bank account for the group and all that sort of thing.”

Mrs Ellis teaches piano and singing privately and has travelled the world performing in competitions.

She said: “Moor Voices will be a real community project and will do a range of music, there are quite a few people who have come along who have excellent voices. So it will be really interesting to see what happens.”