For many of us, singing with the choir has been the first time we've ever sung since leaving school. In fact, many of us have never sung at all before but have long harboured a desire to try. It's natural to feel nervous about all of this - will I sound awful? will I be good enough? what if I can't read music, or a hundred other doubts. It's easy to think of reasons why we can't do something? Sadly today, many of us have become spectators of other peoples' abilities and forget that we have, literally, a voice of our own. That's why Rainbow Chorus is here for you. That is why we don't have auditions and why we don't expect you to be able to read music. We believe that there are already enough obstacles to overcome!
A couple of other things - firstly, we are a performing choir, which means that we perform! Yes - in front of an audience. Oooh, scary. Well, it may be the first time, but after that it's something that you end up looking forward to as it's quite a buzz and anyway, isn't it nice to make music for other people to enjoy? Secondly, we have a very reasonable monthly subscription fee which allows us to pay our Musical Director and accompanist, buy the scores, and of course, our fabulous glittering costumes, tea and biscuits as well as advertising our concerts.
We hold open evenings twice per year where you will be most welcome if you wish to experience what it's like to sing with the choir and these coincide with our two regular performances during the year: The Brighton Festival in May and World AIDS day in December. This means that if you join at one of these then you will have a full 'term' ahead in which to rehearse - the next one will be notified here.
Of course you can come along on any evening and you will be still be made a fuss of then too, but depending on how close that date is to our next concert it may not be possible for you to perform. Each person is treated individually so this is something we can determine when we meet you. By the way, we rehearse every Monday at 7:30pm in the Church Hall of the Church of St. Michael and All Angels, Victoria Road, Brighton (entrance in Powis Road). Play around with the map on the left of this page (or click below to open it) which thanks to the wonders of satellites, shows the church from space ...
If you want an idea of what you can expect on a typical Monday night then click here.
And also ...
There may also be opportunities for you to sing solo as we try to encourage home grown talent. We also have smaller groups within the choir - for example a chamber group, women's group and so on. Well, it's up to us really isn't it?
Finally, maybe you would like to be involved but don't want to sing - there are opportunities for publicity, costumes, photography, music arrangement, helping out on the door at concerts, concert support or perhaps making cakes for a concert! If you have a partner this may be something they could enjoy if they didn't feel able to sing next to you...