Cheltenham Community Choir are gearing up for their annual summer performance at the Town Hall on 17th June when they will be singing songs from celebrated musicals.

The choir, a branch of the Cheltenham Operatic and Dramatic Society, will kick-off their busy 2018 schedule at the Town Hall in Cheltenham with an afternoon of songs from legendary shows such as Annie, Billy Elliott, Matilda, The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Mary Poppins.

The choir, which currently has 80 members, was established back in 2014 and boasts a mix of male and female voices, with a wide spectrum of ages represented. “We’re made up of bass, tenor, alto, mezzo and soprano voices,” said Karen Frank, Publicity Manager for the choir. Continued Karen: “We always welcome new members, and we’re keen to give opportunities to people who want to help out backstage. All our members are so passionate, it’s great to be around so many enthusiastic performers. We rehearse every Tuesday evening at Swindon Village Primary School and the occasional Sunday afternoon when we are working towards a performance.

“The town hall is a beautiful building which we enjoy performing in. The biggest challenge is fitting us all on the tiered staging! We perform with professional musicians and our Musical Director is Beverley Whitaker who is incredibly experienced and an award winning Musical Director. The ethos of the choir is that it is inclusive, no audition is required, and everyone is welcome. This has made the choir incredibly popular, particularly as we perform regularly which everyone enjoys.

“Our summer concert is always at the Town Hall. It is a privilege to perform there and the people of Gloucestershire are always so supportive of our summer musical for which we are very grateful. As the choir is a branch of Cheltenham Operatic and Dramatic Society, Cheltenham’s oldest theatre society, we tend to focus on musical theatre songs. CODS are performing Monty Python’s Spamalot on June 12-16, with several of our members involved, which is very exciting.

Karen says the logistical challenges of producing a concert are not to be underestimated. “Last year we performed Annie at the Everyman Theatre which was extremely challenging. Due to children’s performance time restrictions we had two large teams of children, two children playing Annie and even two dogs plus a large adult cast! We have wonderful backstage members who manage all the scenery, make-up, costumes and more. We couldn’t do it without them,” added Karen.

2018 promises to be a busy year for the members of the Cheltenham Community Choir, with several performances already booked into the diary. After their concert at the Town Hall on 17th June the choir will go straight into practising for their next performance, covering songs from the musical ‘RENT’ in late October at the Playhouse Theatre in Cheltenham. “As soon as we finish one performance it’s straight into practising for the next one. Everyone enjoys the challenge of learning new songs.”