This Sunday, 20 December, over 350 singers of all ages will connect via Zoom to raise money for their choirs and for homeless charity Julian House, based in Bath in the South-East of England.
The event will bring together children’s choirs, community choirs, show choirs, jazz choirs and a chamber choir from across the UK. Over two and a half hours they will perform a programme of carols, Christmas medleys and special versions of classic seasonal tunes. There will also be a visit from a friend in red from Lapland, who will join in the singing.
Devised by choir director Matthew Finch, the event has run three times and attracts global audiences of over 1000. He says, ‘This is the third virtual concert of choirs that I have brought together since March this year, and I am thrilled that so many choirs have wanted to join in. We have choirs from as far north as Yorkshire, and as far south as Devon & Cornwall, all coming together to celebrate Christmas and raise money for a local Bath charity.
‘Choirs are currently recording their Christmas carols and songs in isolation, and then video editors beaver away to stitch it altogether to make these wonderful looking and sounding videos. Christmas Choirshow brings these altogether for a Christmas feast of choirs!’
The participating choirs are:
- Lightning Arts Virtual Choir
- The Great Day Choir
- Sharnbrook Community Choir
- Bath Light Operatic Group
- Abi & The Tasty Mooresels
- Bath Male Choir
- Cantamus Chamber Choir
- Cheltenham Children’s Choir Bristol Military Wives
- Jazz Choir
- Malmesbury Community Choir
- Amabile
- Black Voices
- Horsforth Choral Society
- Dark Sky Voices
- Village Voices
- La La Choirs
- Andovers Ladies Choir
- The Liberty Belles
- The Music Man Project Keynsham
- Singing Nation
- Village Voices
- La La Choirs
- Andovers Ladies Choir
- The Liberty Belles
- The Music Man Project Keynsham
- Singing Nation
- Curtain Up Theatre School
- Welcome Chorus
Tickets for the event are £8.50 per household and can be purchased online via www.finchmusic.ticketlight.co.uk. By selecting a specific choir ticket, 25% of the cost will go directly to that choir.
Cathy Adcock, Area Funding Manager for Julian House, said, ‘The pandemic has been a double blow for Julian House. With most of our fundraising events cancelled and our charity shops closed during lockdown, we are looking at a loss of £200,000. At the same time, we are seeing an increase on demand for our services.
‘Please give what you can so that we can help more vulnerable people in 2021.
‘When Coronavirus first hit it was hard to predict the long-term effect the pandemic would have on the way we all live and work. At the peak of the pandemic, we worked hard to support vulnerable people off the streets and into temporary, safe accommodation. Here we were able to continue to support them during both lockdowns and beyond.
‘As time has gone on, we are now beginning to see the full effect Coronavirus is having on all our lives, and not just on our immediate health.
‘Our domestic abuse services have seen a huge rise in demand. Lockdown has horrifically enabled abuse to continue behind closed doors for months at a time. Also, our Employment Support teams have been working hard due to the increased demand on their support as unemployment rises across the UK.’
