Braintree Voices

We were delighted to have been asked by Larchwood Care Home to perform to the residents.

It was a really hot day but we enjoyed sharing our songs with the residents. There was lots of toe tapping going on with the residents who enjoyed the singing.

We hope to return to share some Christmas songs.

What an evening we had last night at the 2^nd Great Waltham Choir Festival. We were joined in the festival by 8 other choirs, including a primary school choir and 3 choirs from The Sandon School.

One of the highlights was having choirs join together: Chelmsford Male Voice Choir joined forces with Braintree Male Voice Choir to sing American Trilogy, Braintree Voices joined with Chelmsford Male Voice Choir to sing World in Union and Great Waltham Village Choir were also joined by Chelmsford Male Voice Choir for their rendition of A Clare Benediction.

Praise must go to the school children though. The primary school ‘Small But Mighty’ choir sang a fabulous version of Power in Me and also sang a Swahili number, Amani Utupe Na Ustawi (Grant us peace, Give us Courage), with actions and it was great to see the audience join in with the actions.

The choirs from Sandon School also blew the audience away.  The Year 7 Choir sang ‘Happy’ by Pharrell Williams, the Young Singing Leaders Elite choir sang Everywhere by Fleetwood Mac and Sandon Voices sang ‘Shackles (Praise You)’ by Mary Mary. All the children sang confidently and with gusto. For some of Sandon Voices, it was their last performance as they will be leaving the school this year and moving onto pastures new.

 A huge thanks to the staff of both schools for supporting the children so well.

The evening’s finale was all the choirs coming together to sing ‘I’d Like To Teach The World To Sing’ which went down extremely well.

Thanks must also go to Clare Howell, who not only accompanied Chelmsford Male Voice Choir, but accompanied the rest of the adult choirs so beautifully.

Thank you to the church of St. Mary and St. Lawrence for allowing the choirs to use the fabulous venue. Thanks also go to the FOH and Bar Staff team and Malcolm – chair of Great Waltham Village Choir for having the idea in the first place, and for his team who worked behind the scenes.

You can see Braintree Male Voice perform next on 28^th June at the Public Hall in Witham where they are part of a Gala Charity Concert. Tickets can be purchased HERE

Braintree Voices and Chelmsford Male Voice Choir are joining forces again on 4^th July at ‘Songs on a Summer Afternoon’ – their joint concert in Pleshey. Tickets can be purchased HERE

Great Waltham Village Choir can be heard next at their Summer Soiree on 9^th July.

We hope that you are able to join one, or more of these events.

Here are some of us getting ready to sing in Braintree Village today in aid of Dementia Action Week.

We were delighted to have been asked to support Home Instead as they shared information with shoppers.

Singing can be incredibly beneficial for people living with dementia. Music has the power to trigger memories, improve mood, reduce anxiety, encourage social connection, and help people express themselves, even when communication may become more difficult. It can create moments of comfort, familiarity, and happiness for both individuals living with dementia and their loved ones.