And so a choir was founded…

When Angela Kay began Music for Everyone (under the name Nottingham Choral Trust) in 1983, her aim was to offer music making opportunities to people of all ages and abilities. The only criterion for participation was, and still is, enthusiasm.

Not for Angela the easier option of simple music. Her ambition was to enable singers of all kinds to enjoy together the breadth of the choral repertoire – those who could not read music alongside those who could; and those who had never sung in a choir before alongside those who rehearsed weekly.

The chorus’s first performance was of Verdi’s Requiem, no less. Angela decided that a permanent chamber choir might add to the confidence of the Choral Trust Chorus and enable even more challenging works to be sung.

In 1985 Angela formed an auditioned group, the East of England Singers, originally intended to perform for part of each season with the East of England Orchestra – hence the name. The orchestra changed its name to Symphonia Viva, and EOES, as we were affectionately called, eventually decided on a name that better reflected our nature and location – the Nottingham Chamber Singers.

The choir has always had a busy concert schedule – both with our own chamber concerts and performing as part the Festival Chorus. We have a reputation as the friendliest of choirs and that Angela’s humour and great talent has inspired and impressed us year after year.

We sing and laugh in almost equal measure and we are hugely grateful to Angela for her enthusiasm and expertise – both enhance our lives immeasurably.

In 2020 we were thrilled to welcome Rachel Parkes as assistant Artistic Director of Music for Everyone and assistant conductor of NCS. Rachel brings a complementary wealth of choral experience to us, including her years as a member of renowned vocal group Voces8. She is a great interpreter of the text and music of choral works and is adding to our knowledge of vocal technique and listening and blending well as a choir. Angela and Rachel form a superb team, and we consider ourselves fortunate to benefit from their combined expertise and vivacity.

etThe two conductors provide us with repertoire from plainsong to the 21st century, dynamic concert programming, creative presentation and performance, and an endless stream of inventive similes and images, all to encourage us to bring out the beauty and impact of each work we sing and to communicate these better to our concert audiences.

The pandemic saw us confined to home but making great use of technology. A rivalry grew between the sections to see who could give the best rendition of a song from the musicals. Given their originality, the tenors (with a little help from former singers) were declared the winners.

As soon as we could sing far apart in a room or a garden, we did. Rehearsals that endeavoured to combine in-person with online participants proved a technological challenge beyond the church’s wifi capacity. We froze through the winter with all that fresh air rushing through, but it was more than worth it. The resurgence of Covid meant that we cancelled a Christmas concert two years running! As with so many things from 2020-2022, that has never happened in the choir’s history.

And then we were back! Thankfully this meant Music for Everyone could celebrate its fortieth birthday in 2023 and with great style. What a fantastic organisational and musical achievement and legacy from Angela, who handed over the baton of running MfE at the start of that anniversary season.

Alex Robinson was appointed as Artistic Director from September 2023, but Angela still conducts NCS, alternating concerts with Rachel, which means they both have chance to sing, Angela usually with the altos and Rachel with the sopranos. We are all looking forward to celebrating four glorious decades of EOES / NCS.

Life begins at 40, they say, so here’s to discovering, learning and performing great choral music for many years to come!