Based in Laughton, we are a friendly community choir, always keen to welcome new members. We rehearse 8:00-9:30pm on Mondays at Laughton Village Hall, Church Lane, Laughton, BN8 6AH. No previous choral experience is required although the ability to sing in tune is an advantage!
Our rehearsal venue: Laughton Village HallOur new concert venue: Holy Cross, UckfieldLaughton Choral Bursary Fund
The Laughton Village Choir has announced an exciting initiative to help foster community music-making in Laughton and the surrounding villages in the form of the Laughton Choral Bursary Fund. The fund will be available to anyone who would like to sing in the choir but would be deterred by the cost. It will also enable existing members of the choir to apply for a short course of private singing tuition with Linda Glenn or subsidised places on her occasional workshops. The bursary fund opens the door to everyone.
Contact us for more information
Supportive but challenging
Many new recruits arrive unable to read music, but with the help of on-line learning tools and voluntary, informal sectional rehearsals, beginners soon find their feet, assisted by the scattering of more experienced singers who pepper each section. Before joining the choir many members had never navigated a musical score nor, in some cases, ever engaged with classical music. But now they have performed Beethoven’s Ode to Joy, (in German), Vivaldi’s Gloria, Requiems by Brahms, Mozart and Faure, Handel’s Coronation Anthems, and pieces by Elgar, Britten, Swingle, Abba, and Bach.
Singing workshops
A friendly introduction to singing technique and singing in harmony, suitable for complete beginners – including those who think they can’t sing.
More informationHigh quality concerts
Working with other choirs and music professionals, the choir has put on concerts featuring a wide range of classical and light choral music
See our upcoming concerts and buy ticketsOur Team
Director
Will Hancox
Accompanist
Section leaders
The four sections of the choir are all supported by skilled and experienced singers, including the section leaders.
Sopranos
Stephanie Rogers
Altos
Pat Appleby
Tenors
Naomi Cunningham
Basses
Julian Morgan-Jones
About the LVC
In 2008 The Laughton Village Choir (LVC) started with 8 local singers. Fifteen years on the choir is a mini choral society with 60+ singers of mixed vocal ability and choral experience. It is a ‘community’ choir which means it is open to anyone without an audition. Unlike most ‘community’ choirs, which learn repetitive music by ear, our repertoire draws from the best of the classical choral cannon, and the standard of performance is high despite the proportion of inexperienced choristers. At a recent concert, one of the soloists – an experienced professional musician – said with emphasis at the end of the concert “I wasn’t expecting that!”
The choir is a huge happy family, supportive both musically and socially, and it has given rise to several off-shoot groups where members meet in people’s houses to practise their parts, which often involves a lot of cake. They come from a wide circumference of villages around Laughton, including Ringmer, Barcombe, Ripe, Chalvington, Deanland, Horam, Rodmell, Arlington, and as far afield as Lewes, Uckfield, Seaford, Polegate, Saltdean and Shoreham! Some home study is required so that less rehearsal time is spent note bashing individual parts, and more on music making.
Choir subs are paid termly in advance, at £10 per rehearsal. If you want to try us out, you can attend a rehearsal for free. We have a bursary fund which assists anyone who would be deterred by subs, supported from box office receipts and by local patrons. We have an excellent record for filling audiences, because when choristers feel confident of the performance standard they invite everyone they know to come and listen.
Choir finances
Choir subs cover hire of the village hall and the conductor and accompanist’s weekly fees, with any excess (plus box office receipts) going into a choir account. The choir account is used to pay the costs of putting on concerts, to support the bursary fund, and for occasional capital expenditure (e.g. we may have to replace the Clavinova in the near future).
Concerts are expensive to put on, even with very limited use of instrumentalists – we often replace a whole orchestra with one hard-working pianist! Costs of two recent concerts were as follows:
About the Clockhouse Singers
A small mixed group that specialises in a cappella close-harmony classical and jazz. Our repertoire ranges from sophisticated jazz arrangements (Swingle, Puerling, Real Group) and tricky classical numbers by the likes of Copland and Whitacre , often in 8 parts.
Click here to see more information, and to watch a video of the Clockhouse Singers performing This Marriage