For years I was a bit of a groupie for my husband. He sings in two male voice choirs, and I would go along and sit in the audience and help to sell raffle tickets. I could see how much he got out of being in a choir. All those friendships – it’s just a lovely little community. And I thought … I’d love to create that for women.
I wasn’t a singer. I could sing in the bath, I could sing in the house, and after a few drinks I think I’m Rita Ora. I’m still not a singer, not really, but it’s not about that. What I’ve learned since is that if you can just hold a note in a group of women who are doing the same thing, you make a lovely sound.
In 2015 I put out the word to women like me who would love to sing in a choir but were reluctant for one reason or another. On the big day, my husband and I went for a walk and I kept bumping into my friends at the country park, and I said, ‘We’re starting a choir – be there tonight!’ and a lot of them did. And a lot of them are still there.
Our name - Dare to Sing – not only highlights the town where we’re from, Aberdare, but also the ethos of the choir. We dare. We’re ladies who have a go.
I was so nervous when I found someone who was willing to be our musical director. Llinos is excellent, and she’s taught us all we need to know. For a start, you don’t need to read music. I didn’t know whether I was a soprano or alto. Not a clue. You just start off with a musical scale and when you’ve reached a point that you can’t do any more, stop. See how it goes. If you feel a part is too high or too low, then you can move about until you feel comfortable.
In the early days, we sang easy pieces. But there was one very technical song that we learnt to sing in three parts: Lean on Me. When we were ready, we sang it in our practice room and charged our family a pound to come and watch us. When we sang that song, they all clapped and cheered. We were all crying.
Denise Manning, Dare to SingMy husband sang in choirs. All those friendships – it’s just a lovely little community. And I thought … I’d love to create that for women.
It can be life-changing, absolutely. Especially for vulnerable women, or widows, or women who feel that they’ve got nowhere to go if they don’t have a partner. A choir is perfect because it’s a fantastic social life as well. It’s something to look forward to every week. We know that Monday night is choir night. We’ve made a point of making it official policy that once a month we all trot along to the pub and get to know people. We’ve also got non-singing members who just come for social events.
There’s nothing like singing in a concert, though. We all love the performing, and now that we’re more confident we’ve got a lovely choice of music. We do quite modern stuff, like Karl Jenkins’s Adiemus. We’re learning Flowers by Miley Cyrus at the moment and we love that. Bohemian Rhapsody always brings the house down.
Tonight at choir practice we’ve got the job of choosing a nice warm uniform for winter concerts. Can you imagine 100 women choosing just one uniform? I’m definitely going to be over in the pub afterwards.
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