We are sad to announce that, after 13 years, we will be parting ways with our Musical Director, Murray Hipkin.
The Pink Singers, an LGBTQ+ community choir based in London, bids a very fond and heartfelt Pinkie farewell to our long-standing Musical Director, Murray Hipkin. Following recent changes in Murray’s career, we have made the difficult, mutual decision that it is time for Murray’s tenure to come to an end.
Murray Hipkin
Murray has been the Pinkies’ Musical Director for over 13 years and whilst sad to say goodbye, we appreciate the outstanding service and dedication that he has shown to us and our community for such an extended period. Since Murray took the musical helm, we have grown to become a 100-strong group of amateur singers who come together to sing, perform and campaign for our community both in the UK and abroad. We remain proud to represent a diverse range of sexual orientations and gender identities from all walks of life, united by a passion for choral singing. Murray has given us his extraordinary talent, musical passion and love of our community, and for that we will remain forever grateful.
“It is with enormous sadness that I have had to accept that major changes in my career path, necessitated in no small part by the current upheaval at English National Opera, where I have worked since 1983, mean that I am no longer in a position to give the Pink Singers the time and energy that they need and deserve from their Musical Director. The last 13 years count among the most joyful and affirming of my professional life and it has been a truly transformative experience to have had the privilege of working with the choir. My work with them has taken me to Pride marches around the world, into the recording studio, onto Zoom, and, of course, to wonderful concert venues such as Het Concertgebouw, in Amsterdam, the NCPA, Mumbai and, of course, our London “home”, Cadogan Hall. I have made friendships for life and learned many invaluable lessons and I will always be grateful for my time as MD of this amazing community.”
Murray Hipkin
We wish Murray all the very best for his next endeavours and know that he will never be far from our performances, our hearts and the LGBTQ+ community.
Murray’s farewell performance with the choir will be as guest conductor at our next concert alongside Interim Musical Director, Olivia Doust on the 20th January 2024.
As part of our 40th year celebrations we are running a series of ‘Hometown Concerts’. The idea behind the series is that choir members take The Pinkies home to towns and cities that we have not visited before but have a special place in the hearts of our members. Kicking off the country-wide tour, our scouse duo Rachel and Darren took us to Liverpool for an amazing weekend. Over to Rachel…
Rachel, Soprano
Growing up in Liverpool definitely gave me a strong sense of social justice and an appreciation of good music, so it’s no wonder that, since living in London, I’ve found a home in this choir. Recently I had the joy of bringing these two things I love together, taking the Pink Singers to visit my home city.
The idea of a hometown visit came about when planning celebrations for the 40th anniversary of our choir. Members of the Pink Singers have come from all kinds of different places across the world and across the UK. The idea was to take our choir’s message, music and vision of an LGBTQ+ community back to the hometown of one of our members. We would connect with local LGBTQ+ choirs, foster solidarity and reach communities and audiences that we wouldn’t otherwise encounter. So over the last year, I’ve been working with Darren, another scouse Pink Singer, hatching plans to visit Liverpool.
On the march with our 40th Anniversary banner
After months of planning with two local LGBTQ+ choirs, the Liverpool Rainbow Chorus and the Proud Marys in Chester, and Liverpool Pride, our weekend in Liverpool began on a Friday evening where we brought the three choirs together to get to know each other and rehearse ahead of our performances on Saturday. As we welcomed and introduced members of the choirs, and finally met our fellow organisers from the other choirs in person after months of planning as a team spread across three cities, Darren and I couldn’t quite believe we had really made all of this happen. But it was when we began singing together that the magic really started. I don’t think there’s anything more uplifting and bonding than singing together in harmony, knowing we all have this experience in common – and by the end of the evening we had made new friends. The atmosphere was amazing, and it sounded great.
On the march!
On Saturday we had the honour of kicking off Liverpool’s Pride March together on the steps of the iconic St George’s Hall. This year Liverpool was also hosting Kyiv Pride, a poignant reminder of how we must not take for granted the safety and security that allows us to celebrate and protest together as a community, and sending a message of solidarity across borders. It was an emotional moment being joined by our friends from the other two choirs in our Pink Singers’ rendition of You’ll Never Walk Alone to send off a record-breaking colourful crowd of 20,000 people on Liverpool’s Pride march.
The energy was high as we sang and danced our way along the parade through Liverpool’s city centre and down to the waterfront. In the afternoon, we had our second performance, in the beautiful venue of the Museum of Liverpool, where we shared some of our Pink Singers favourite songs, cheered and danced along to brilliant performances from our friends in the Liverpool Rainbow Chorus and the Proud Marys, and sang together as a joint choir. Having my family and friends in the audience made this a particularly special moment for me, and it was while singing Chosen Family that I reflected on how grateful and proud I felt to have this opportunity to bring together so many of the people I love in one of my favourite places and share this music.
Performing in the Museum of Liverpoool
The rest of the weekend was spent enjoying all that Liverpool has to offer and soaking up the party atmosphere of Pride. I loved making these memories with my fellow Pinkies and enjoying my home city together. This hometown visit was a wonderful experience to bring the music of the Pink Singers to a new audience, come together with two fantastic LGBTQ+ choirs and spread our message and positive vision of a joyful LGBTQ+ community connecting through music. A powerful reminder that You’ll Never Walk Alone.
PRESS RELEASE:Pink Singers awarded a £94,625 grant by The National Lottery Heritage Fund to archive and celebrate the 40-year history of the choir through their project Sing it Loud, Sing it Queer.
The Pink Singers have received a National Lottery Heritage Fund grant of £94,625 for an exciting heritage project, Sing it Loud, Sing it Queer. Made possible by money raised by National Lottery players, over the next year the project will unlock the incredible history of the London-based organisation from its origins in gay liberation to its identity today as the UK’s longest-running LGBTQ+ community choir, turning 40 this year. The project will make the choir’s archive collections more easily accessible and will enable new ways to engage with the Pink Singers’ archive digitally.
Supported through The National Lottery Heritage Fund’s Dynamic Collections campaign, the project will enable people to discover LGBTQ+ history from the 1980s to now. It will unlock the many diverse stories of the choir through a new podcast series made in collaboration with Aunt Nell and a short documentary film made with Happenstance Films showcasing a brand new composition to celebrate the anniversary year. Volunteers will also learn new skills in archiving, research and oral history as the choir’s significant archives are prepared for donation to the Bishopsgate Institute, one of the UK’s most prominent archives on LGBTQ+ history.
Formed in 1983, The Pink Singers are Europe’s oldest mixed LGBTQ+ choir, internationally renowned for their music, activism, and close-knit community. Their membership is diverse; with ages ranging from 18 to 70, and representing many sections and experiences of LGBTQ+ life and intersecting identities, with members who come from all walks of life, representing a range of sexualities, gender identities, who are disabled, of colour, and who are parents.
This project will enable the choir to understand and share its LGBTQ+ community histories now and into the future. The Pink Singers’ history reflects 40 years of change and growth for queer communities in the UK; its choir members have performed on the backbone of Gay Liberation and Women’s Liberation, through the HIV-AIDS crisis, the introduction and eventual repeal of Section 28, the repeal of the ban on serving in the armed forces, the Gender Recognition Act, civil partnership and gay marriage, as well as the ongoing struggle to maintain equality in the modern age and protect the rights of trans people and people of colour. Most recently they have encountered the challenges of supporting each other and bringing the choir successfully through the Covid-19 pandemic. As well as their work in the UK they have also travelled extensively abroad, joining and supporting their LGBTQ+ choral friends in places like India, marching for the repeal of Section 377, and Poland, protesting the LGBTQ+ free zones and war in Ukraine.
Commenting on the award, Chris Scales, the choir’s Archive Manager and Project Chair said: “We are thrilled to have received this support thanks to National Lottery players and are excited that the project will open up LGBTQ+ stories and the significant history of the Pink Singers to a new generation. Despite always being an ‘out and proud’ collective, as a grassroots LGBTQ+ community choir our journey of progress has often taken place under the radar. We are excited to unlock the many hidden stories of the choir and reflect on our place in society and legacy after four decades of activism and queer joy through singing”.
Notes to editors
About The Pink Singers
The Pink Singers is an LGBT+ community choir based in London. Formed in 1983 for the Lesbian and Gay Pride march, they have grown to become a 100-strong group of amateur singers who come together to sing, perform and campaign for their community. They are made up of talented people representing a diverse range of sexual orientations and gender identities from all walks of life, who are united by a passion for singing great choral music.
About The National Lottery Heritage Fund
Using money raised by the National Lottery, we inspire, lead and resource the UK’s heritage to create positive and lasting change for people and communities, now and in the future. www.heritagefund.org.uk.
Since The National Lottery began in 1994, National Lottery players have raised over £43 billion for projects and more than 635,000 grants have been awarded across the UK.
Further information
For further information, images and interviews please contact Laura Owen, Project Manager of ‘Sing it Loud, Sing it Queer’ at laura.owen@pinksingers.co.uk or 07982044679.
In our recent concert at Cadogan Hall one of the songs we performed was Bronski Beat’s Small Town Boy, beautifully and movingly arranged by our very own incredibly talented Simon P.
Paul, from the tenors, shared his own story of moving from a small town to London...
I’d like to tell you a story – of a boy from a small town. (That’s me). The town, Rathfriland, County Down, Northern Ireland (population 2,400) is unlikely to be familiar to you, however the story might be. It is, plus or minus a few details, likely also your story. So many of us found ourselves here in London because we came searching for something. Something that, try as we might we would never find at home. Where do I belong?
Paul on stage Photo credit: Jessica Rowbottom
At the end of the 90’s, when queer as folk was first aired on British TV, the Good Friday Agreement was signed, the Admiral Duncan bombing occurred and I graduated from Nursing School in Belfast, I came to London in search of excitement and to find answers. To find love. To locate that missing jigsaw piece that I thought would make me complete. Don’t get me wrong, I wanted for nothing, I had great friends, was out and proud, with the full support of my family. Nevertheless I packed up my car and like Dick Whittington was off to london to find my fortune.
Some of the memories that I hold dear from my childhood, as many of you I’m sure will identify, are soundtracked by my family’s taste in music.
I used to dance around my aunts bedroom to Duran Duran and the Communards. We even did (and still do, sometimes) our own dance routine to Venus by Bananarama. My mum and stepdad were into the Pet Shop Boys, Erasure, loads of Ska and Punk. This music was the soundtrack to my formative years. My mum passed 4 years ago rather unexpectedly at 61 but one of her favourites was Smalltown Boy by Bronski beat, It sees fitting that it then became the theme tune to my departure some years later.
Photo credit: Jessica Rowbottom
I arrived in London, with a packed Vauxhall Corsa that contained my life, in December 1999, and at the turn of the millennium entered into a new exhilarating and terrifying chapter of my life. Hard as it was at times, the following 24 years were all the things I thought I was searching for and more. Sometimes the big city was lonely. Expensive. Full of pitfalls, But I worked hard, pushed on and had plenty of adventures. Cut to present day and I stand before you today as one of you. A smalltown boy. In a big city where the opportunities are as limited as your imagination.
The next song, was played at my mum’s funeral, as part of a celebration of all the things she loved. I guess you could say that it was her exit theme too now. She’s not here to hear me sing it sadly so I’d like to dedicate this to Wendy and to all the smalltown boys, girls and folk of all genders who are looking to find their place in the world.
Pride has always been a very important time for The Pink Singers. We performed our first ever gig at the Lesbian & Gay Pride march in London in 1983 and have continued to march ever since; exercising our right to protest to improve the rights for all LGBT+ people and be visible for our community.
On 1st July we took part in London Pride. This home town pride has been a permanent fixture in our calendars for over 40 years. There was a short hiatus due to covid, and the last two years we decided not to attend due to our concerns over systemic racism within the Pride in London organisation. However, after engaging with them, this year we felt things had improved and were proud to once again march the streets of London, donning our brand new Pinkies 40 year anniversary t-shirts.
To coincide with our t-shirts, we also created a brand new banner for Pride. With the amazing sewing skills of Chris S, Duong, Hester and Charlie S, a bright sparkly new banner was pulled together in one evening during a placard making session at my house, to replace our usual pink and black banner. The banner was proudly paraded at both London Pride and Trans Pride (8th July) and features a variety of LGBT+ flags, and commitment to trans inclusion and supporting the black lives matter movement.
The gang at Trans Pride
I felt very proud to march with my Pinkie comrades. I’ve been marching in prides with them for almost 12 years. After all the transphobia in the media and changes to LGBT+ rights around the world it felt more important than ever to stand up and march with our queer family.
Below we hear personal accounts of our attendance at Trans Pride from two of our wonderful choir members, Josi and Katie.
Charly (Soprano and Communities Team Member)
Josi (Bass)
Josi (right) with Nicola at Trans Pride
Something special happened on Trans Pride day.
But the story starts many months ago when a decision was made by the Pinkies to show overt solidarity with their trans members. True allyship is when people put some energy into demonstrating their support, and not just telling us. My beloved Pinkies chose to put mega energy into their support and it became visible and more than that, it was very, very real. It’s no secret that I’m an emotional mush and I have to admit to a few tears blurring my vision as I’m writing this.
The preceding week to Trans Pride was Pride London. On that day a regiment of Pinkies turned up with a huge banner declaring their support for trans lives. I felt very proud. Then at Trans Pride, Pinkies assembled and showed London that trans lives really do matter. We assembled in the rain at Trafalgar Square. The assembled crowds grew to beyond the capacity that the square could hold.
I was both amazed and blessed to see so many cis people wearing their hearts on their sleeves and highly motivated to show us that we were loved and belonged. I was thrilled to see the variety of trans people in both age and presentation.
Of course the label ‘Trans’ is as useful as the label European. It puts us on a map but tells you nothing about who we are. It’s an umbrella term, the irony not lost on me as I sheltered from the rain. The rain abated almost as we set off from Trafalgar Square,
there were thousands upon thousands upon thousands of trans people and our allies, and as we marched and demonstrated, we received so much love and support from crowds along the way.
It was a truly uplifting experience reminding me that the Twitter world and the axis of hate, is not the real world and that our government’s fixation with controlling us, even hoping to eradicate us, is not the prevailing view of everyday people. The vibe was definitely to show everyone we matter and they care.
We finished at Hyde Park Corner and I watched as the thousands upon thousands upon thousands of allies walking with their trans siblings entered the area and filled it, as at the beginning, beyond capacity. It was a sight I will never forget.
I’m so proud of my Pinkies and grateful doesn’t cover it.
I have never been more certain of my validity, my worth and to continue to stand up prouder and shout even louder than “them”.
Josi
Katie (Soprano)
It was my first time attending Trans Pride in London alongside my pink singers family. I’m pleased to share my experience of it from the perspective of an Ally, as part of this collection of various pinkie voices.
Katie (left) with James at Trans Pride
It was incredibly moving to see approximately 30,000 people gathered in central London with an array of incredible signs, all powerfully conveying messages of visibility, support, and wishes for a better world. It was amazing to have so many people turn up to protest despite the torrential rain. Though it dampened our signs, it most definitely didn’t dampen our spirits.
We proudly marched alongside the pink singers banner, to which we affixed a trans flag, the words “Pink Singers for Trans Rights” and flowers to honour the long legacy of transgender, non-binary, gender non-conforming and intersex people. In our recent summer concert, we wore our signature pink roses and continue to remember the immense contribution they have made and continue to make to the LGBTQIA+ rights movement.
Katie
Pride season isn’t over for us. We’ll be taking part and performing at Liverpool Pride at the end of July, as well as attending Black Pride and Bi Pride in London. Hope to see you there!
