When you get the chance to sing in a global competition...
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Singing makes up a HUGE part of my life. Like, HUGE. I've been singing in various guises for as long as I can remember - starting with local eisteddfods as a kid growing up in Wales. Then it was school productions led by the flippin awesome Ms. Whibley - bustin' out 'My Name Is Tallulah' after the interval while my mum and sister were still chatting and didn't even realise that was ME singing when they thought "Ooh that's good," is still A Moment. The very same Ms. Whibley's influence led me to study Theatre Arts as a joint major at uni...which led to choir singing, which was immense and awesome and I adored it. Cue a huge break while I had a family and kinda forgot that singing scratched all my brain itches (apart from singing to smol kids while trying to get them to GO THE EFF TO SLEEP).
A few years on and I end up making random contact with a friend of a friend looking for a singer. An insanely talented, most irreverent, punk-at-heart guitarist and sound engineer, named Ian Gardler, who at one point told me my voice reminded him of an Iranian (I think?) singer that he heard as a kid on a charity shop find album, which made him want to make music. That pretty much fricken sold me. We released some EPs, an album, got a publishing deal, were featured on BBC 6Music by the gorgeous Tom Robinson, came very close to being featured on a sexy Italian car ad...and then just like that, my songwriting mojo ran off into the sunset. Go fig. I had an absolute blast doing it though, and my partner in crime gave me so much confidence and actually made me believe I was a decent singer. Life changing stuff, tbh.
Then I discovered barbershop. Totally out of the blue. A friend at work was a member of a women's barbershop chorus, and I got chatting with her as they were about to head off to their annual national competition. Long story short, I ended up heading along to a taster day, they made me cry, I fell in love with it, gushed on camera for their review voxpops, and joined as quickly as I could. That was in 2014. The chorus was GEM Connection, and at my first nationals, we got a bronze medal, which was pretty damn badass. I spent ten wonderful years with GEM, singing bass, learning A TON about singing in general and my own voice in particular, making lifelong friends and loving every minute. I would not be anywhere near where I am now in my singing life without them, and I'll be eternally grateful.
Just over halfway through my time with GEM Connection, the pandemic hit - and of course, we could no longer sing together. Shortly before that, I'd plucked up the courage to try quartet singing...and while going from singing in a 70-strong group to being the only one singing your part in a four part harmony was TERRIFYING - the beautiful humans that made up Ruby Tuesday with me did what Ian had done for me years earlier - and I actually started to believe I was okay at this singing stuff. Their patience, kindness and encouragement were beautiful, and again, lifechanging. Back to the pandemic, and as you'd expect, we were 'allowed' to get back to singing in quartet way earlier than in the larger groups - and that was an incredible lifeline to have! As was The Collective...
Started as a small a cappella group before the pandemic hit, The Collective quickly grew, once we were all locked down, into a behemoth of a virtual choir, peaking at around 2000 active members. I joined in the early stages of this soon-to-be-beast - and I was instantly SO GLAD I DID. The brainchild and passion project of Simon Lubkowski, it provided an indescribably valuable way of gathering singers, from all across the world (I think we hit 30+ countries at one point), of a like mind, who couldn't gather in person and were really feeling the loss. Using tech savvy teams, Zoom, recorded submissions, online rehearsals round the clock to account for time zones, we put together some seriously memorable moments that kept people going, kept us improving our craft, helped us maintain friendships and forge new ones. There were moments that really stay in the memory - like Californian members apologising that they might have to duck out of a rehearsal because they could be evacuated at any moment due to the wildfires, like the stories of connection shared during our first anniversary celebration, that being a part of the choir and preventing isolation had literally saved some people's lives during the testing times of the pandemic. I personally remember heading onto Zoom to share in an hour or so of the 1st birthday celebrations - then finding myself still sitting at my desk, eight hours later, glass of wine in hand, tears streaming down my face at yet another wonderful account of what The Collective meant to people. Quite summin - and it's still going.
Spending time in a choir led by Simon, and the urging of my dear quartet and GEM Connection pal Rita, led me to LUX A Cappella (another of Simon's groups - he has many, and sleeps little), the one choir I'm now a member of, and have been four and a half years.
LUX is an incredibly special place. We're made up of really diverse singing backgrounds - some folks from purely choral backgrounds, some dyed in the wool barbershoppers, some who had never sung in a choir before joining. But it all works. We know that because when we finally got the chance to compete in our national annual contest, we got a bronze medal on our first try, with about 40 singers. Then we got another bronze medal on our second try. On our third, we bagged the silver (this time with 112 singers as a special project for our association's 50th birthday). Then, this year, on our fourth outing (with 83 singers) - we got the gold, becoming national Mixed Chorus champions - something we strove for, but genuinely didn't expect in a field of excellent choruses.
In our silver medal winning year, we also got a score that qualified us for international competition - which means we get to go to the US in just two weeks' time, as the VERY FIRST UK MIXED CHORUS to do so, to perform at the Barbershop Harmony Society's International Convention in Denver, Colorado. To say we're quite excited would be an insane understatement. I never thought in a million years I'd get the chance to sing on an international stage with some of the very finest humans I've ever had the joy to know.
I feel incredibly lucky and privileged to be a part of LUX - we strive to excel and improve ALL the time, in all genres, and yet the level of fun, the amount of pure chill, is amazing to me. Having a tech-savvy leadership team is incredible, and that's what enables us to live stream every rehearsal or coaching session (THANK YOU Nik!), including hosting a Zoom room which is beamed into the rehearsal so we can interact with those who can't be there in person - this also means we can welcome members from overseas who want to be a full time part of the Leicester-based LUX fam too, something which still amazes me. We have 6-7 hour rehearsals, but it never feels like work. lt just feels like joy, like this is what life should be about - doing something that makes your heart thump and your soul soar every single time, side by side with your best friends, just because it's really bloody good fun. I have a hunch that maybe that's why we're doing ok.
If you fancy getting involved with barbershop, here are some links...
https://www.singbarbershop.com/ - the Association of which LUX A Cappella is a proud member chorus!