The Choirs

<NEWS> A full service recording of the 'Carols by Candlelight' Service 2008 is available for listening (and download) by clicking here. This file is about 71.5MB and lasts 1hr 20mins.

We have two choirs at St. Margaret's, a Youth Choir (school year 2 upwards) and an Adult Choir, both led by our talented Choir Trainer, Clare Pollard, and accompanied by our fantastic organist, Brian Shilling. We join together for special occasions and most notably at Christmas when we form our Christmas Choir for the ever growing 'Carols by Candlelight'!

The Youth Choir

~ What would you gain from joining the choir?
The St. Margaret's Youth Choir is a group of young singers who regularly come together for one reason - their love of singing! By becoming a member of our choir, you will learn important singing skills, teamwork, fundamental musical skills, and above all, public performance training, which will also develop your confidence.

~ What kind of commitment would be expected of you?
Obviously, for our choir to develop, we need to practice, and so, it would be expected that you attend practice sessions every other Saturday morning (from 10am until 11am), and to attend the first Sunday of each month for the Family Service in St. Margaret's, when we sing the hymns and also perform a choir anthem.

~ What is the cost of being a member?
It is absolutely free to become a member of our choir, as a matter of fact, our choir is paid! For every practice session attended, you are awarded £1, and for every service itself, £1. For special services such as weddings, our choir members each receive £3 for singing!

~ What sorts of social activities do we do?
Needless to say, it is not all work being a chorister. We feel it should also be a fun and social time with others. Through the year, we have:-
 ♪  Annual Rounders Match
 ♪  Picnics
 ♪  Holidays Clubs
 ♪  Theatre Visits (Pantomime Visit Write-Up, December 2008)
 ♪  Other Trips

~ Voice for Life
Our Youth choir follows the Royal School of Church Music's "Voice for Life" Scheme. With this scheme, any musical ability is catered for - different levels of difficulty allow even complete beginners to advance and become more familiar with perhaps the more difficult sides of music theory. The scheme helps focus on the choir in context, belonging to a choir, using the voice well, and helping with general music theory. There are four different levels of 'work' for developing skills, and once each stage is complete, the chorister can officially wear a medal to prove their most recent success. When a chorister joins, they receive their own individual workbook, which will be gradually worked-through during practices, without the placing of any (undue) stress! For more details about the scheme, please click here.

~ Our repertoire
We have a large repertoire of songs, in both unison and two-part music, which we perform on a regular basis, perfecting and mastering new skills along the way.

~ Still not sure?
For a majority of the time, we sing at the Family Services, but at special times of the year (such as Christmas), we also join with the Adult Choir. If you're still not fully convinced that you really want to make this commitment, come for a trial practice with no obligation. Alternatively, if you wanted to, you could come and speak to the choristers themselves after one of our services to learn more, and to have your questions answered by those who know best. Why not come and listen to us at a family service?

The Adult Choir

The Adult choir meets twice a month on Wednesday evenings (7pm - 8pm) to rehearse, and they sing during Matins on the second Sunday of each month (9.00am) and the Family Communion service on the third Sunday of each month (10.30am). Some of our members rehearse and sing only once a month in order to fit around their family commitments, so we are a very flexible bunch! We are currently studying singing technique in more depth and are rehearsing more complex anthems in four parts in order to extend our repertoire. We are a very supportive group of people and have a lot of fun whilst making the very best sound we can to praise our God.