How to join Somerset Chamber Choir

COME AND JOIN US NOW!

We rehearse over five or six weekends spread evenly over the year, plus one Friday daytime rehearsal prior to the Wells Cathedral concert. Our rehearsal schedule for the coming season can be viewed here. Members are expected to work on their music scores between rehearsals to minimise time spent learning notes at rehearsals - this helps to avoid too much repetition during rehearsals and makes effective use of time whilst keeping the music fresh.

We usually give two major concerts each year, one in Kings College Chapel Taunton, the other in Wells Cathedral. These concerts are well established and very popular, attracting regular audiences of up to 400 people in Taunton and anywhere up to 900 people in Wells, so they are very exciting events to be involved in.

Prospective members are warmly invited to join in all or part of the next available set of rehearsals; they are then asked to sing briefly (and confidentially) for the conductor at the end of the rehearsal (singing a little of the music learned during the day, and a few basic listening and singing tests) and, if that works out OK, membership is then confirmed.

In order to keep the pure quality of sound for which the choir is renowned, our preference is to recruit in the age range 18 to 40, but we will consider new members of all ages carefully on the basis of vocal sound and quality.

Members are expected to commit to all rehearsals, but we appreciate that this is not always possible - therefore, we require members to attend 75% of the earlier rehearsals for a concert, but the rehearsals immediately prior to the concert are obligatory.

There are two types of membership:

FULL MEMBERSHIP
The annual subscription (at 2009/10 rates) for full membership, meaning you will be able to sing in every concert, is £80 (or £40 for students).

TEMPORARY MEMBERSHIP
The Choir sometimes recruits extra voices on a temporary basis, one concert at a time. The per-concert subscription for temporary membership is £25 (students £12.50). If you think this may suit you better, we will keep you on our database and you will be invited to sing with us occasionally, whenever the need arises.

HOW TO APPLY
Please send us an email to recruitment@somersetchamberchoir.org.uk giving:

1. your name, address and other contact details

2. your age

3. a brief description of your most relevant singing experience so far (for example, names of other choirs you have sung with)

4. whether you are interested in FULL or TEMPORARY membership

5. what persuaded you to apply to join the choir?

6. what voice part do you sing: soprano, alto, tenor or bass?

We will reply by email as soon as possible.

Thank you for your interest in the choir and we look forward to hearing from you soon.

© Somerset Chamber Choir 2009