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.
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.
As a charity, we aim to promote equality and diversity for the LGBT+ community. We also aim to make some amazing music!
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.
The 30th anniversary concert, ‘P.S. We’re 30!’ is performed to a sold-out Cadogan Hall. It features songs from each of the choir’s three decades and celebrates the journey that the choir had made, politically and musically. In the first of a couple of posts, Newbie Gary reveals all about his first concert experience as a Pink Singer.
Well I did it: I got through my first “Pink Singers” concert, the culmination of 5 months hard work by the choir.
I remember back in the summer when I decided I would go along for an audition. I was very nervous, but everyone was so friendly and helpful. There is so much talent in the Pink Singers and I am still in awe of the fact that I am part of such an amazing group. The Newbies Party was great fun and a chance to meet everyone socially, and made settling in a lot easier…
My first season was challenging, as firstly I don’t read music and secondly I hadn’t realised how much learning I would have to do away from rehearsals, especially for this bumper season featuring over 20 songs to learn! However the rehearsal piano tracks were a big help, but I’m sure many people were a bit scared when I have been singing along to them on my iPod whilst walking the dog!
In November, mid-way through the season we recorded a CD, which was brilliant, and sounds amazing. It makes me very proud to see my name on the sleeve. It’ll be available to buy online very soon!
Rehearsing at Cadogan Hall. Photograph by Hsien Chew
So it was suddenly 19th January and Concert Day, I can’t believe the performance went so quickly, and I only forgot my words once as far I know which I am sorry to say wasn’t during a number involving choreography! I was nervous throughout most of the first half, but the response of the audience to every number was amazing and made all the rehearsals so worthwhile, and I only just managed to hold back the tears after the final rendition of Hand in Hand to which we received the most amazing standing ovation.
In the short time I have been a ‘Pinkie’ I have had a blast, and made some good friends. Everyone is so welcoming and friendly, and if I’m honest I am a little sad to lose my “newbie” tag, but I am looking forward to our next season (starting on 17th February) already!
Recorded in November 2012 at St Giles’ Cripplegate, the Pink Singers’ P.S. We’re 30 CD showcases a fabulous array of the choir’s most memorable repertoire over its thirty-year history.
In 2012, the choir performed a joint concert with St George’s in Harpenden, a religious foundation school, in support of the charity Diversity Role Models. The Herts Advertiser covered the story in the run-up to the event…
INTERNATIONALLY-acclaimed choir, Pink Singers, travel to Harpenden from their London base next Friday, May 3, to join St George’s School senior and chamber choirs for an evening of music.
Continuing their work to combat homophobic bullying, the 1,325-strong Harpenden school will perform a variety of classical and modern pieces with the Pink Singers as the London choir complete their final preparations for a June appearance in Lisbon.
Assistant conductor Alice Humphrey, who has taught music at the school since last September is thrilled that St George’s students have the chance to sing with the choir she trains each week with English National Opera-based musical director Murray Hipkin.
She said: “‘The Pinkies’ as we are affectionately known are of an incredible high standard and they will be so impressed with my St George’s students who have mastered a whole range of chamber and popular music. It is so good that the school’s work against homophobic bullying amongst younger students is being extended to this fund-raising concert for our important charity – Diversity Role Models.”
Diversity Role Models speakers with Mark and Liang
Headmaster Norman Hoare commented: “Any chance for our super choirs to sing with professional groups is something we promote and to work with this choir is a real privilege. It will be a stunning concert and at the same time reflects this schools pledge to work against unfairness in society and homophobic bullying which we have been praised for on the national stage – including the Department for Education and Stonewall.
