The Nottingham Bluecoat Singers
-We sing for friendship and fun!
We are an experienced choir based in Nottingham that enjoys singing a wide variety of music. We would be delighted to sing for you to raise money for good causes or simply to entertain you. We welcome new members, especially tenors or basses. Please view our Concerts and Events and the Why not join us sections below for details of what we've got planned or about coming to sing with us.
Singing across the city and the county
for over 60 years
Stephen Godward, our illustrious musical director and composer
What we do...
Under the guidance of our musical director Stephen Godward we have a variety of concert programmes which we can offer to community and charity based organisations as fundraising opportunities. In the last 10 years or so we have performed in over 100 local concerts and raised thousands of pounds for community projects and good causes all over the county. Every year we put on a major 'Sing Christmas' concert and our own in-house show to raise funds for a major charity. Over the years we have performed in national and international competitions with some success and have supported many of the famous names in the music world when they visit the East Midlands. Several of our members belong to other operatic societies and musical groups in and around Nottingham. We have a good social programme too that includes theatre trips, BBQs and afternoon garden parties.
Events and concerts
Saturday 7th October 2023 7:00pm Our Lady of Good Counsel church hall Nottingham Road Eastwood NG16 2AQ Tickets available via 0115 9531903
Saturday 25th November 2023 7:00pm St. Mary's church 100 Church Road Greasley NG16 2AB
Saturday 16th December 2023 7:00pm Bluecoat Sing Christmas 2023 Nuthall Methodist Church Nottingham Road Nuthall NG16 1DP Tickets available via 0115 9531903
Why not join us?
If you have a hankering to sing and can hold a tune in your head reasonably well, then we would be pleased to welcome you to our Friday evening rehearsals. We start at 7.30 pm under the watchful gaze of our musical director and usually sing for a couple of hours, with a tea break and chat at half-time.
Whilst the ability to read music is a help, it is by no means essential. What is more important is a willingness to throw yourself into a new and exciting world of music that could exploit your creative talents.
Do come and join us ...we guarantee you will have a lot of fun, make new friends and might even become a star of the show! Email admin@bluecoatsingers.org for more details.
How we can help you
We try to plan our programmes and calendar of events for the coming season well in advance and have a number of diary dates available when we could perform for worthwhile causes within reasonable driving distance of Nottingham. If you belong to an organisation and are looking for a quality attraction to:
- help with your fundraising activity
- celebrate an anniversary
- entertain at a family/works event
then we would be pleased to hear from you to see if we can include your event in our list of engagements.
We charge a small fee to cover our expenses (the costs of our rehearsal rooms, pianist accompaniment etc) but apart from that all the money you make on ticket and raffle sales is yours - an easy way to raise around £500+ and have a great time in the process!
Please contact our events organiser via events@bluecoatsingers.org to register your interest.
Feedback
Here's what other people have said about us in the past:
'Our first major fund-raising concert since before Covid has been a great success. We've booked again for next year.'
'What a fabulous array of talent you possess between you! The singing was of course excellent, poems, jokes etc most entertaining and the programme was delightfully varied.'
'Thanks for a marvellous evening, so glad I could make it. Excellent choice of music and poetry-well done and massive thank you to all your singing friends.'
'A wonderful and hugely talented group, the Bluecoat Singers sang beautifully and were so well received everywhere they performed whilst raising invaluable funds for us. We had so much fun working with the whole team!'
The first half of 'Winter Warmer' was simply magical. I'm told the second half is even better.....how is this possible?!
'I've been to lots of Bluecoat concerts but this one was by far the best I've heard.'
Our nominated charity
Each year we nominate our own charity to support in addition to singing to raise funds for local organisations. We put on two concerts annually ourselves and these help to cover our rehearsal costs and the purchase of new music. At the end of the season any unused cash is donated to a worthy cause. In recent years we have supported Cancer Research UK, the Notts/ Lincs Air Ambulance, the local Stroke Association and research into Parkinsons.
This year we have opted to support Emmanuel House in Nottingham city centre. At a time of real economic hardship, the number of homeless people in our community is growing rapidly. Helping them in some small way through our music gives us a small sense of satisfaction as well as raising awareness of this very challenging issue right in our midst.
We hope that our fund-raising efforts over the forthcoming Christmas period will approach the £1,000 mark of previous years.Ideally we would like to give a similar amount again before the 2024 season draws to a close.
This is how we sound!
Click to open a YouTube clip in a separate window:
Nottingham Young Musician of the Year
The Bluecoat Singers are delighted to be sponsoring this event again in 2021/22
Nottingham University music department
https://nymyblog.wordpress.com/dates-and-venue/
The Bluecoat Singers (formerly the Bluecoat Gilbert & Sullivan Company) have been making music together for over sixty years and are pleased to support this competition. This is the fourth time we have sponsored a prize and this year we were delighted to give the sum of £250 to talented pianist Sebastian Wang in the semi-finals of the competition.
Congratulations to Sebastian! We look forward to hearing a lot more of him in the future...
Our pianist Helen has over 30 years experience leading sing-along interactive music sessions, catering for all ages from 6 months to 90 years, working with schools, nurseries, care homes and community groups. She is the leader of the Nottinghamshire charity Musicworks’ award winning Heron Music Café for Wellbeing.
You can read and hear more by clicking this link: https://joyfuljukebox.wordpress.com/
Nottingham Bluecoat Singers -making a great sound together for over sixty years
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