Call for volunteers to help museum’s new choir hit the right notes

Singers from across the city are being invited to make music history as part of Leeds City Museum’s new community choir.

Starting this month, the museum will be asking singers of all abilities to come along and make their voices heard at a series of free sessions.

Aimed at giving people the chance to enjoy singing in a relaxed environment, the choir will take inspiration from some of the museum’s incredible collections, which span more than 540 million years of world history.

Emma Sargison, a local jazz singer and singing teacher, who will be running the choir sessions, said: “The main aim of the choir is having fun and enjoying singing with others in a relaxed and friendly community atmosphere.

“There won’t be any auditions and singers of all abilities are welcome, so it’s just a fun way to get some extra confidence with singing and make some new friends.

“We’ll be singing songs from all over the world, including songs from Leeds, with some linked to the museum's collections so the choir will hopefully be a real celebration of vibrancy and diversity as well as our city’s past and present.”

Starting on January 13, the choir will meet once a month initially on Friday afternoons from 1pm-2.30pm

Subsequent sessions will be held on February 10, March 10, April 7, May 5 and June 2.

Councillor Brian Selby, Leeds City Council’s lead member for museums and galleries, said: “It will be fantastic to hear the museum filled with the sounds of this new community choir and to see people from across the city coming together to enjoy music and singing in such an inspiring and historic setting.

“Music has such a unique and incredible capacity to unite people and I hope lots of singers from our many communities come along to these sessions and get involved.”

Leeds City Museum is on Millennium Square and entry is free. Anyone interested in joining in can email city.museum@leeds.gov.uk, call 0113 3787121 or drop in on the day.

For more information on Leeds City Museusm, visit: http://www.leeds.gov.uk/museumsandgalleries/Pages/Leeds-City-Museum

ENDS