Tag: choir festivals

Tenor Liang remembers joining the Pink Singers back in 2005, and his experience of Various Voices 2014

Various Voices Dublin 2014, what a blast, what an adventure, what an experience.
Let’s rewind to January 2005. I had just watched a concert by the Pink Singers and thought, these guys are quite good and I want to have a go at it. With no training in music or singing, I joined the choir with some trepidation. Having only done karaoke, this was a new experience for me as the need to cooperate and listen to each other encouraged a sense of togetherness which extended beyond the confines of the singing and fostered a community spirit.
Fast forward to June 2014 and Various Voices Dublin. The festival was looming. With 4 days to go, I was not perfect with the “movements” (greens, Jenny?) to Shine and found myself rehearsing this to passers-by giving me weird looks. Singing in the City was a programme organised by VV Dublin to perform to and engage the public. Our first performance was in this programme at Axis Ballymun alongside the Rock Creek Singers from Washington D.C. It went down a treat and we formed a new mutual appreciation society with our American brothers. You can see a picture of us all together at the top of this post.

With the first concert in the bag, I knuckled down to the remaining three I had to do. In between erecting the exhibition, watching the other choirs, late night partying coupled with early morning rehearsals and meeting friends old and new, this turned out to be an exercise in concentration and application – not something that I was expecting. Singing at 1am as the last act with Pink Singers small group, the Barberfellas, in Spurious Voices was overwhelming and that was the moment when I wanted to crawl away and have a little me time.
Every choir brought its own personality to the festival. It was a joy to be sharing the stage with our fellow choristers. It was an honour to be singing with representatives from Asia where LGBT choirs are barely tolerated in some countries. I laughed at the comedic shows and I cried at the heart rending performances.
Night after night, the Pink Singers took over the dance stage to show off our choreography to Proud Mary, Shine and other songs. There was probably a mole whispering to the DJ to play our songs and in true Pinkie style, we took up the challenge and jumped at every opportunity to strut our stuff, including the ridiculously difficult line dance for 9 To 5. By the 3^rd night, the other delegates were joining in with Proud Mary – success!
To fully enjoy VV, you have to embrace the concept, throw caution to the wind, talk to everybody. Be prepared for anything and expend all your energy in the few short days of the festival. Who needs sleep? – we can get that when we return home.

Come the end of the festival, I was exhausted but exhilarated. But the fatigue was what allowed my barriers to break down and let me bare my emotions. I rarely cry but I had shed a few tears here. It was time to go home to recover and revel in the memories of being a part of an event that had brought so many people together in a show of humanity. Various Voices Dublin, I salute you and I look forward to Munich in 4 years.
Don’t want to wait until Various Voices 2018 to see the Pink Singers? Get your tickets now for Notes from a Small Island, our celebration of British composers and songwriters on Saturday 19 July 2014 at Hackney Empire.

Chair Mark writes an open letter to future Pink Singers to tell them how awesome Various Voices in Munich in 2018 will be…
Dear Pinkies of January 2018,
No doubt the Management Committee have been banging on for a while now about Various Voices in Munich and badgering you to register so we can have a viable choir to send. As a semi-veteran of these events (Dublin, London, Paris, Montreal and Denver) I cannot recommend it highly enough.
For three days you’ll be safely wrapped in a choral bubble surrounded by like-minded singers from around the world.
You’ll not care what’s going on in the outside world. You’ll be on a constant emotional rollercoaster. You’ll be amazed by the sheer brilliance of some of the choirs. You’ll want to give standing ovations. You’ll feel for choirs appearing for the first time and visibly showing their nerves and having to start a song again from the beginning.

You’ll be torn between wanting to grab a short nap or going to the next concert block. You’ll probably go to the next concert block. You’ll find the Pinkie magic flows with abundance whenever the choir is together. You’ll realise that the Altos/Sopranos/Tenors/Basses* (delete as applicable) aren’t as scary as they seem at home. You’ll feel you belong. You’ll wonder how on earth you can get to see all 80+ choirs performing. You’ll be moved to tears by some sensational performances. You’ll wear your Pinkies t-shirt with pride and not want to take it off. You’ll laugh and probably drink too much. You’ll probably cry again at some point. You’ll beam from ear to ear whenever anyone says “the Pink Singers were just stunning – how do you get that sound?” You’ll walk just that little bit taller when you come off stage. You’ll be in awe of the organisers who move 3,000 people around with effortless grace and good humour. You’ll sing in bars and stairwells and on street corners. You’ll love it. You’ll want to stay for more.

You’ll come back with dozens of new Facebook friends from around the globe. You’ll wonder how you managed to keep going and wish you’d booked a bit more time off work to recover. You’ll wish you had learned the obligatory dance moves to Proud Mary. You’ll keep your delegate badge when you get home. You’ll talk about it for weeks to come. You’ll keep smiling. You’ll experience withdrawal symptoms. You’ll wait anxiously for the video of our performance to be posted on YouTube. You’ll wish there was another one next year. You’ll be exhausted. You’ll sleep. You’ll feel incredibly proud and lucky to be part of an amazing choir. You’ll realise how fucking/freaking* amazing the Pinkies are and how we’re looked up to by other choirs as an example of choral perfection and teamwork.
You’ll have no voice left.
Mark (Bass and Dowager Chair) x
Don’t want to wait until Various Voices 2018 to see the Pink Singers? Get your tickets now for Notes from a Small Island, our celebration of British composers and songwriters on Saturday 19 July 2014 at Hackney Empire.

Alto Jenny recalls her experience of the Various Voices festival in Dublin last weekend…
I’d been waiting for this for almost five years.
I first found out about the Pink Singers when someone thrust a leaflet for Various Voices London at me whilst I was minding my own business on the South Bank in May 2009. I couldn’t go, but I sent my enquiry to the Pinkies’ New Members’ Rep shortly afterwards, and five years on, I found myself sitting opposite him on a picnic bench in Dublin, captivated, and yet also horrified, by his word-perfect rendition of YMCA. But this is the new normal.
Various Voices is an international choral festival for LGBT choirs. 2,500 singers descended on Dublin from as far apart as New Zealand, New York and New Cross for four days of flowing things, including – but not limited to – song, conversation and drink.
A lot of the choir said they hadn’t known what to expect beforehand, so with the benefit of hindsight, I thought I’d write up seven handy survival hints ready for Various Voices Munich in 2018.
1. Do not bother bringing any clothes which do not have your choir’s name emblazoned on them. You are in a small (but essentially benign) army. This is not a mufti event.

2. Study the Eurovision winners of the host country diligently, so that when your entire choir’s bass section erupts into a chorus of Ding-A-Dong, or your choir’s accompanist is standing up and rapturously waving his arms as at the coming of the Messiah, you do not have to say, ‘who on earth is this Johnny Logan chap?’
3. Eat enough green things in the week running up to the festival that you will not feel their lack when confronted by a surfeit of fragrantly spiced sausages. Luckily it turns out that Guinness contains 99% of the nutrients any normal person needs to survive for a few days. I imagine that the same will turn out to be true of Löwenbräu.

4. There will probably come a moment where you are overwhelmed by the sheer beauty of someone else’s performance and perhaps also lack of sleep, and need to go somewhere quiet and dark to cry a little. For these moments, build yourself an exhibition and conceal a sofa behind it.
5. Talk to as many people as you possibly can about the most random thing you can think of. Normal London service is suspended. No-one will think you are weird. You don’t even have to say hello. These conversations are the best thing about the festival.

6. You might think that you’re going to go sightseeing, but this is a delusion. All your tourist activities will be confined to the space between some sheets, the stage and a beer tent. The most impressive sights I saw were all bleary-eyed from my bedroom window: a rainbow, the Spar and a woman reading a book.
7. Visit lots of other choirs in between festivals so that walking down the main drag will make you feel like you’ve walked into an episode of Cheers. With the Pinkies, this is easy: everyone really does know our name, and some of them were even glad that we came. We have a reputation. No, not in that way. A good way. Pink love x
Don’t want to wait until Various Voices 2018 to see the Pink Singers? Get your tickets now for Notes from a Small Island, our celebration of British composers and songwriters on Saturday 19 July 2014 at Hackney Empire.
See just a few of our pictures from Various Voices 2014 below: