[A version of this article first appeared as a post on my blog From the Front of the Choir]
I had a friend who moved to a new town and set up a new choir, blissfully ignorant of the 100+ community chorus that already existed there.
What was amazing was that the new choir quickly attracted 40 or so new singers, none of whom were from the rival choir. How is that possible?
We choir leaders like to kid ourselves that people come to sing with us because they like us and what we do.
The reality is that people come to a choir mainly because it’s at a convenient time and day!
You’ll be surprised at how many singers are out there waiting for a choir to spring up on a Wednesday evening or a Monday lunchtime. As soon as you build one, they will come.
Don’t worry about poaching singers from existing choirs. Unless the singers are seriously disillusioned with the repertoire and the way things are run, they have found something (at a time and day) that suits them so they will stay.
So if you’re hesitating about setting up a new singing group and worrying that there are not enough singers to go round: don’t! Build it and they will come (but make sure it doesn’t clash with something else that’s already on).
If you’ve not set up a choir before, you might like to read my series of 10 posts called How to start your own community choir. And if you’re not a choir leader and want to start a choir, then check out the two guest post called How to set up a choir if you’re not a choir leader.
Good luck!
Chris Rowbury
website: chrisrowbury.com
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