Elaine Lee on HCS Voices

HCS Voices – Spring Concert at The Huddersfield Mission, 8th April

Adrian and I spent a super evening at our Academy choir’s spring concert on Friday, 8th April.

Originally created to help singers build their confidence with a view to enjoying choral music and for some to eventually audition for the senior choir, HCS Voices is now a wonderful ensemble in its own right.

Their concert programme was a truly international one, including songs from Africa, Hawaii and Polynesia, to name but a few, all beautifully performed – with some items from memory. Abi Kitching was the talented conductor and, as well as accompanist Tim Wilkes, she had brought along a string trio: Jordan Garbutt (violin), Sophia Dignam (viola) and Selena Farnsworth (cello). Abi herself sang several delightful folk songs.

One thing which struck me particularly was that the choir members all looked to be really enjoying their singing and clearly responded to Abi’s leadership. It says in the programme that their main criteria are that they love to sing and to have some fun, and they certainly looked to be doing that!

Angus Pogson and Helen Martin work very hard to run HCS Voices and deserve our praise for all they do. The choir deserves a larger audience and we can highly recommend attending their future concerts.

Elaine Lee