Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Open Arts Community Choir

Open Arts Community Choir singing at Out To Lunch arts festival 2010

Open Arts Community Choir were on stage at lunchtime as part of the Out To Lunch Arts Festival. Wow. They bring a smile to your heart and a tear to your eye.

Open Arts Community Choir singing at Out To Lunch arts festival 2010

Fundamentally, they're a choir. They were down in numbers - not everyone can get off to work to gig at lunchtime - so perhaps that dinted their overall sound. But all the same, they rattled through a wide repertoire, with some lovely solo parts. The choir's website explains:

"Inclusive best describes the Choir. It features people with disabilities and those without, from every section of the community. The age range is extensive, from seventeen to over seventy. Blind people work alongside people with mental health difficulties and people with learning disabilities. The members are united by their love of song."

Signing the songs as well as singing them added a whole new layer of interpretation. While they should be judged as a choir on their musical abilities, I found it impossible not to be additionally bowled over by their get up and go attitude and achievements. Blending voices together, countering many forms of disability - visible and invisible - coordinating singing in parts across sighted and unsighted singers, and making it look like it's the best feeling in the world.

Another great lunchtime event from the Out To Lunch festival. There are a handful more events running in the Black Box this week. Check out their website and booking page for details of what's left. And the addition of yoghurts to the free lunch is a wonderful extra.

1 comment:

Virtual Methodist said...

have seen this choir perform at a number of events, from concerts to conferences, and they have never once failed to impress. And not in a patronising "didn't they do well despite..." kind of way... they were genuinely artistically of a very high standard as well as being a model to the rest of us as to how to collaborate to produce something way beyond the sum of the parts...