Sing it loud

Sing Out Bristol is an LGBT (and friends) community choir. Since the choir was formed, Sing Out have played numerous concerts and events across the UK and their annual Bristol concert is usually a sell-out event. Co-chair Eddy Lawton explains more.

The choir was first set up by a small group of people who enjoyed music and wanted to sing. They first met in someone’s living room back in 2007 and some of the original members are still with us.

The first musical director stood down not long after they started Sing Out Bristol and luckily Ronan De Burca stood in for a while and eventually took over the role. We are very fortunate that he has stayed on and is still our amazing MD today.

Sing Out started with just six members and has now grown to 130. We are the biggest LGBGT choir in the whole of the South West and the only award-winning one.

We are a community choir serving Bristol’s LGBT community. We are open to anyone who wishes to join us and are therefore a non-auditioning choir. You don’t need to be able to sing, read music etc you just need to have a love of music and singing and enjoy being part of an amazing group of friendly, fun, supportive and caring bunch of people.

Sing Out Bristol is run, and organised, by a voluntary committee, with Ronan doing a sterling job at the helm with the help of co-chairs Dan and me.’

We have just put on our latest concert Round The World With 80 Gays. We sing a variety of songs from modern, classical, traditional and songs from musicals to name but a few styles and Around the World… was no different.

It was a show where we went on a journey with our audience around the world singing songs from different countries on the way. This included the choir singing in various languages such as Italian, Gaelic, Mandarin, Maori, and in African languages and dialects. We like to think that there’s never a dull moment with us.

Last June a lot of the choir went to an international LGBT choir festival called Various Voices. The festival was held in Dublin and lasted for four days. There were choirs from all over the world performing and the entire event was live streamed over the internet. This was an amazing opportunity for us to sing to such a wide audience and we loved it. As well as the performances there were various music and performance workshops and a very busy social diary.  

It was a very moving and uplifting experience for me and I think for other choir members. Not only was it an amazing concert but also the support from other choirs was fab.  The social aspect of our own choir and the bonding that happens was definitely a new door opening for me.  Although I had been in the choir for a few years going to Various Voices really was a fantastic opportunity for me, especially socially and gave me the drive to take on the role as co-chair in order to help organise other great opportunities for everyone. 

Before we went to Various Voices the choir did lots of fundraising to ensure that everyone who wanted to go, regardless of the financial position was able to.  The choir fully or partially funded everyone who needed it.

Anyone interested in joining Sing Out Bristol can get in touch with them via their website www.singoutbristol.com 

Photo from Tanya Hazell