About Us
Our beginnings
The choir started in 1992 as a Newbury College adult education class under the leadership of Ian Westley. It was originally a mixed voice choir.
The membership grew and the choir moved to a new, larger venue. After ten years, the last of the men left and it was decided to make this an upper voice choir, still singing in four parts - two soprano and two alto.
In 2008 we discovered Making Music - an organisation which supports voluntary music groups. We joined them, left Newbury College and became fully independent. Another choir at Caversham Adult Education Centre joined us, almost doubling our numbers, so we changed the choir’s name to Vivace Voices and moved our venue to St Catherine of Sienna Church in Tilehurst.
Our charity support
We have continued to grow and now do three concerts a year during which we raise money for a variety of charities. In the last two years alone we have raised more than £4000 split between 5 charities.
In addition, we visit care homes and, every year at Christmas, we raise more money for our chosen charity by singing carols at Sainsbury’s Superstore, Calcot. For details about this term's upcoming charity concert and 'Carols at Sainsbury's' click HERE.
This term we are raising money for the SSNAP charity in Oxford who 'support sick newborn, their parents and those that care for them; by providing emotional, medical, financial and informational support.'
Click HERE to learn more about what they do and,
if you wish to support the charity but can't make it along to this term's musical events then you can simply click HERE or use this QR code to visit the Just Giving page specially set up by Vivace Voices to direct donations to SSNAP.
Point your smart phone camera at the QR code and then click on the pop-up link. No need to take a photo as the link will pop up automatically as soon as your camera phone 'sees' the code. Thank you!
Our music
Under the experienced and skilled leadership of Ian we have become a very polished choir. We also have a small chamber group (a sub-set of the main choir) who rehearse for short sessions after the main rehearsal and who work on more challenging material.
We sing an eclectic range of songs ranging from sacred music, classical pieces and folk songs through to jazz standards, world music and songs from shows. But most of all ... we have fun. Wednesday afternoons would be very flat without our weekly trip to Vivace Voices.
We love to welcome new members to our happy community so, if you would like to know more about how to join, click here.
'The only thing better than singing is more singing'
Ella Fitzgerald