Singing in a choir is special...

Singing in a choir is special. Individuals who can hold a tune come together and prioritise connection, harmony and blend over the individuality of any one single human voice. Maybe Aristotle was a singer when he said that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts; the sound we make when we sing together, listening to each other and singing with sensitivity, far outweighs anything we can achieve individually, and brings us such collective joy.

And while we take great pleasure in just singing together each week, there is something quite wonderful about sharing our music with a massive audience, and we were so lucky to have this experience at our Christmas concert ‘The Very Best Time of Year’ at The Priory Church of St Mary’s, Tutbury.

Alongside our traditional ticket sales, our online booking functionality is really starting to take off, and we had a bumper audience for our Christmas concert. And what an audience it was too! Their participation in the congregational carols was in fine voice, including the knee-creaking challenge of singing Good King Wenceslas (if you know, you know!), and they were so generous with their appreciation of our singing and readings, including giving us a spontaneous standing ovation after two encores! Thank you to all those who came along to all our festive fixtures; we so enjoyed sharing our music with you.

After a short break over Christmas, we returned to Anslow Village Hall in mid-January, for our first rehearsal of 2026, and our Annual General Meeting.

Our AGM gave us an opportunity to both reflect on last year and look forward to 2026. Our wonderful outgoing Chair Mark handed over the reins to the lovely Janice, who’s proudly waving the flag on the committee for the Second Altos (biased, moi?). Mark has been our Chair for a number of years and we owe him a huge debt of gratitude for all his passion, enthusiasm and hard work that he’s put in to making Friday Voices the choir it is today.

During the AGM we heard reports from our Musical Director, Chair, Treasurer and Marketing lead. We all behaved impeccably; listening attentively, asking wise questions about budgets, and pretending we all understood what a QR code was. Everybody except our Musical Director Marcus’ lovely dog, Figaro, that was. Our self-appointed Head of

Barketing made no effort whatsoever to feign interest in the annual accounts, instead curling up into a ball, and snoring soundly for the duration.

While 2025 was a great year, 2026 is looking really promising for Friday Voices too. We’ve got dates in the diary already for our summer and Christmas concerts, and exciting plans coming together for the music we’ll be singing this year. First up in our calendar is a weekend in Cambridge, where we’ll be putting on a concert at Clare College chapel on the afternoon of Saturday 18^th April, and a service there the following morning. We’ll share further details through all our usual channels as we get closer to the date, but if you happen to be in the area (or fancy a weekend away), we’d love to see you.

While it can be tempting to stay in the warmth of our homes on a dark evening after a busy week, there is something really quite wonderful about starting the weekend singing together with a group of like-minded friends. Friday night means choir night for us, and some of us have started our weekends this way for some time, but for others this is the start of something new. We’re delighted to welcome two new members to Friday Voices; Brigitte, who’s joined our soprano section, and David, who Marcus has classed as a ‘bass with benefits’, as while he’s officially a bass, sometimes that second tenor line will have his name on it! We’re always on the look out for new members, especially tenors at the moment, so if you think you’d like to join us, please do get in touch.