Features / choir
Singing it loud and proud
Having just celebrated its tenth anniversary and with over 150 members, SingOut Bristol is a vital part of the city’s LGBT community, providing a safe, inclusive space for queer Bristolians.
Meeting with managing director Rónán de Burca and concert director Christian Wismann, they explain how the choir has grown from a few people meeting up to sing in each other’s living rooms, to performing at international festival, Various Voices, with over 70 of the choir’s members in Munich in 2018.
“It’s really morphed and grown,” says Christian, “last year when we held our tenth anniversary concert at St George’s, we sold out so quickly that we had to add a second night.”
is needed now More than ever
Rónán nods in agreement, adding: “We’ve rapidly grown as a choir in the last ten years, but it shows our audience of people wanting to hear us has grown as well.”
Christian and Rónán, courtesy of the SingOut Bristol Facebook page
SingOut Bristol is an LGBT+ choir based in the heart of the city, providing a welcoming place for queer people: “It’s a community group and a performance choir,” says Rónán, “not everyone performs but it’s diverse and inclusive for everyone. It’s nice to have a space that’s not a bar.”
The choir performs between ten to 12 times a year, including a large performance that the choir organises themselves. This year’s the show is Icons, a celebration of prominent LGBT figures in music. Additionally, some members of the choir do outreach work with LGBT groups in prisons, hospitals and charities. “It’s important to get into the community,” says Christian.
The choir have performed at Bristol Pride in the past but are also organising a fundraiser for the festival on Wednesday, July 3 this year. Bringing together Bristol performers as well as choirs and musicians from outside the city, it’ll be a night full of queer music from throughout the UK.
Having grown from a dozen people singing in each other’s homes, to a performance choir of over 150 in just ten years, SingOut Bristol is a community group going from strength to strength.
Icons runs from Friday, May 31 to Saturday, June 1. The Bristol Pride Fundraiser takes place on Wednesday, July 3. Buy tickets and find out more at www.singoutbristol.org.uk
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