Claire and Tina O’Brien, the sisters behind Altrincham children’s choir Little Belters, are set to face the dragons in this Sunday’s episode of Dragons’ Den.
The pair, who grew up in Wythenshawe, teach five to 11 year olds to sing in a group setting, giving a twist to classic rock anthems, current chart hits, indie anthems and contemporary folk.
They started Little Belters in Altrincham in 2011 and now have around 150 members, running classes in Cheadle Hulme, Didsbury, Sale and Chorlton.
Claire said: “We were initially very unsure about pitching in front of the dragons for investment and whilst we can’t say anything about what happened until after the show airs on Sunday evening, both Tina and I found it to be a great experience. Most of all we’re really proud of our Little Belters who truly melted everyone’s hearts.”
Tina studied at the Royal Northern College of Music before joining Glyndebourne as a trained opera singer, performing at the Last Night of the Proms, while Claire studied music at Hull University and then sang across the UK, Europe and the USA with chamber choir the Joyful Company of Singers.
Little Belters has performed at numerous events around Altrincham, including the Christmas Lights Switch-On, Altrincham Festival and the Greater Manchester Marathon.
Tina added: “We started off simply wanting to provide a high quality group for local children where we train them to be great singers and confident performers. We have a strict no audition policy so any child that loves to sing can join. Little Belters has grown quicker than we ever expected so when the chance to pitch for the dragons came our way we thought, why not!
“We’re not your average choir – we take on things that people would never expect children to sing like Arctic Monkeys, Kaiser Chiefs and we have recorded with European House DJs. We certainly like a challenge and after teaching a room full of 5-11 year olds every week we weren’t too scared of Deborah, Peter, Nick, Sarah and Touker!”
Dragons’ Den airs on BBC2 on Sunday 21st August at 9pm
Watch the Little Belters in action at the Greater Manchester Marathon in April:
The @LittleBelters doing a brilliant job of keeping the runners going #altrincham #manchestermarathon pic.twitter.com/9uDNTPDXSG
— Altrincham Today (@altrinchamtoday) April 10, 2016
