Spring has sprung. If you’re looking for a new activity but feel tied to the house with the children, this could be the perfect solution.
Middleton Minstrels Ladies Choir was formed two years ago. Through funding and support from Awards for All and Leeds Community Fund, the facilities have been provided to members free of charge. The choir is run by the choir, for the choir. It started slowly with a handful of women of differing ages, backgrounds and abilities but with boundless enthusiasm. We were lucky to discover that our choir leader would be Heather Coulton who has wide experience with community choirs. Under her expert guidance and gentle nurturing, the choir has grown in confidence and now has a number of public performances under its belt using the stage name of ‘A Choir’d Taste’.
We are very much in charge of our own identity and revel in performing punchy songs that can take the audience by surprise. After a successful and extremely enjoyable Christmas Concert which raised money for The Isla Smith Fund, we were honoured to be invited to perform at Health for All’s AGM. The performance went down well, especially our rendition of ‘King of the Swingers’ from The Jungle Book, complete with grass skirt and monkey ears, prompting local MP Hilary Benn to Tweet how impressed he was with us.
We have a strong core of around a dozen members and half as many again who turn up as and when they can. It has become a wonderful group who not only love to sing but also enjoy a good laugh and putting the world to rights. The health benefits of group singing are well documented and the popularity of community choirs has grown through the recent TV programmes featuring Gareth Malone. Suddenly everyone wants to be in a choir. We think ours is very special.
We would love to welcome new members of all ages. There is no need to audition, just turn up and join in. We have fabulous crèche facilities run by highly qualified and professional crèche workers. It is a marvellous opportunity for mums (or grans) to come along and have quality time doing something for themselves when it is so easy to do everything for the family and feel that they are losing their own identity. So come along and join this social group, get out of the house and have some fun, while the children make new friends in the crèche. It’s win, win! We hope to see you soon.
We meet every Friday morning, 10.30am-12.30pm, at Tenants Hall Enterprise Centre, Acre Close, Middleton, LS10 4HX.
Contact singmm@googlegroups.com for further information.
