After months of secret preparation we’re thrilled to announce our programme of summer events to mark our 30th anniversary, including a concert featuring 15 other LGBT choirs from around the UK, a world première, an exhibition charting LGBT history in London during the last thirty years, and a set of vocal workshops open to all.
We’re so excited in fact, that we’ve made a special microsite which is packed with all the details of what’s happening and how to get involved.
Find out more now!
Blog
Our 30th Anniversary
We celebrated our 30th anniversary year in style in so many ways, that it’s taken quite a while for us to distil the enormity into this 4:30 clip.
Huge thanks to all photographers from within (and without!) the choir who worked on documenting the year: Hsien Chew, Liang Wee, Ben Park, Oskar Marchock, Pete Stean, Simon Pearson, James Cronin, Jake Milligan, Boy oh Boy Photography.
Relive our year and listen along to Richard Thomas’ composition ‘Earth, Wind and Choir’ performed by the Pink Singers and 21 other LGBT choirs at our choral festival Hand in Hand in July 2013.
And if this whets your appetite, check our yearbooks from previous years: 2011, 2010.
Timeline datestamp: 07 April 2013
Scholars Workshop: Three Decades of Social and Political Change
Once upon a Sunday, in the darling month of March, the Pinkies gathered together to hear three leading scholars discuss the last three decades of social and political change within the LGBT community, Louise Chambers, Sasha Roseneil and Jeffrey Weeks.
As a Spring baby of 1989 and having grown up unaware of most of the significant developments that occurred, I was personally very keen to learn about the last 30 years, and more specifically how it linked in with our own history as a choir. If it wasn’t for the time limit I’m sure we could have continued our discussion for hours! Continue reading “Scholars Workshop: Three Decades of Social and Political Change”
Charity Status
25th March 2013
At the start of the year, I had envisaged that we would park the perennial charity status question for the PS@30 year. However, at the first committee meeting, it became clear that there was a will to push this forward. I asked Sue and Adam about this again outside the meeting, as the onus of work would largely fall on the Secretary, Treasurer and Chair posts, and it needed all of us to give time and energy in order for it to have any chance of success. We did most of our planning in an Indian restaurant near Lamb’s Conduit Street and divided up the tasks. Sue redrafted the constitution, Adam looked into all of the financial implications and I dealt with trusteeship and the kinds of questions that choir members were likely to ask.
The choir adopted the new constitution at a General Meeting (GM), and then we submitted our application. A list of 10 complicated questions came back to us. At this point about a decade before, our forerunners had given up. But we persevered, finding evidence to back up our claim to musical quality (thank you Murray), charitable purpose, etc., held another GM to pass an extra clause in our constitution and were duly awarded charity status on 25th March. This is likely to be the thing which will have the longest legacy for the choir from the year, though it was paradoxically the thing which took the fewest people to achieve.
Timeline datestamp: 25 March 2013
Lights, camera, action: PS@30 filming workshop with Martin Gooch
So this season with the Pink Singers is shaping up to be quite unlike any other season previously seen before, as we work to mark the glorious 30th anniversary of the choir. To celebrate such an occasion, we are planning workshops, interviews, a timeline presentation, a new choral commission, and liaisons with other choirs across the country in conjunction with this year’s Pride celebrations. What an utterly delectable snack-box of jollies to come! Continue reading “Lights, camera, action: PS@30 filming workshop with Martin Gooch”