We love singing at Westminster Abbey, so when they offered us a date in August to sing Evensong, we jumped at it. Although, being holiday time, we didn’t have many singers available. When Nick explained we only had ten singers at the moment, but were expecting to recruit a few more, the music department kindly agreed – as long as we brought a minimum of twelve singers.

In 2021 we had the strange experience of singing a weekend of services there with just sixteen of us, and all socially-distanced (you can see from the photo how much space there was!) The Abbey quire is a vast place to fill with sound! But it was fine. Because we always sing ‘mixed up’ anyway, we’re used to listening to other parts than our own. The sensation takes a bit of getting used to, but you just trust that others are singing too and you’re all making a beautiful, blended sound. Nick swears by it as a method to create balance and enable good intonation.  (It also means you make sure you know your part inside-and-out, because there’s nowhere to hide if you make any errors!)

It now looks like we’ll be at least fourteen in total. Nick is still deciding what we’ll sing. It can’t be too ambitious with such a small choir, and as our only rehearsal will be on the day it also needs to be repertoire. Do come and listen if you can: Saturday 3rd August,  5pm, Westminster Abbey.