How choirs still bring connection, joy and wellbeing in Preston

Loz Kaye. Credit: Michael Porter Photography

Preston choirs are at the centre of a Lancashire-wide initiative to improve lives through song

It has been 42 years since Morag Hill moved to Preston wondering how to make friends – and she is still a member of the choir that welcomed her to the city and helped make it feel like home.

Now aged 80, she attends weekly rehearsals of Preston Orpheus Choir – one of 116 singing groups mapped in a new Lancashire-wide project. County of Song, a year-long celebration of singing – aims to showcase the region’s incredible oral history, and support the many groups whose existence were threatened during the Covid pandemic.

So far 1,000 people have taken part in events and workshops held by the project, which in Preston includes a new work performed at Encounter Festival.

For Morag, it’s a combination of music and sense of community that has kept her going back to her choir.

She says: “We have lots of friends at the choir. We celebrate each other’s special birthdays, we send cards on wedding anniversaries, and sadly these days we go to each other’s funerals as well. We’re like a great big family.”

It was by chance that Morag discovered Preston Orpheus Choir, which has been in existence since 1929.

She says: “We were in Argentina at the time, which was not a good place to be in 1982. The Falklands War broke out and we came home. I went to a Christmas service at St Mary Magdalene’s in Ribbleton, and I stood next to a member of the choir. She heard me singing, and she said ‘would you like to come and join our choir?’”

This camaraderie is one of the things that County of Song director Loz Kaye identifies as a benefit of joining a singing group.

He says: “What makes the singing so special for people is the connection they feel to the communities around them. And the act of singing is something that brings joy, but also wellbeing. There’s lots of great research that shows the benefits for everything from lung health to combating isolation.

“Lancashire has an extraordinary history of singing. In Rossendale, there was a group called Larks of Dean at a rural chapel 200 years ago. They were writing their own music. One of the groups that still exists is the choir at Lancaster Priory, and they assure me they have a continuous tradition of over a millennium.”

County of Song is the outcome of a piece of research Kaye carried out in 2022 into the impact of Covid on grassroots singing in Lancashire. It found that, while they are a crucial part of the region’s cultural scene, 80% had lost members and 90% were looking to increase their numbers. Even more worryingly, nearly one third of groups said they were concerned about their future viability.

The report’s recommendations included a “recruitment tool kit” that groups could use to attract new members, a map to make it easier for people to find groups near them, and the creation of a community singing outreach role that would connect groups to networks and potential support.

At the time of writing, 116 choirs and other types of singing groups had added themselves to the online map on the County of Song’s website, while 27 groups have taken part in events and been given promotional support, working with partners including Culturapedia, Lancaster Arts, Encounter Festival, and LPM Dance.

Kaye says: “I think a lot of people are a little a little bit scared about the idea of singing. It’s okay, you don’t necessarily have to sound like the people on the television, your own voice is fine.”

Many singing groups, including Preston Orpheus Choir, have got rid of auditions, meaning that you don’t have to be of a certain standard to join.

Daniel Adams, music director of Preston Orpheus Choir

Daniel Adams, the choir’s music director, says: “Officially, we’re what they call an oratorio choir, so we sing classical music whether that’s Mozart’s Requiem, Elijah by Mendelsohn. We’d quite like to do a Messiah at some point. We’re working on a Brahms Requiem for next year.

“I try to be as collaborative as possible, asking what our interpretation of the music is going to be as a group.”

As well as the valuable experience of working together towards a common goal, Daniel praises the physical and mental health benefits of singing.

In Preston, there are a number of groups that were specifically created to take advantage of this.

They include Memories and Melodies in Penwortham and The Alzheimer’s Society’s Singing for the Brain programme, which brings together people affected by dementia to sing songs they know and love.

Chris Lawson, the charity’s Local Services Manager for West and Central Lancashire, says: “We do find there’s a wellbeing element to being together with other people and singing, and being engaged around music can bring forth feelings of joy.

“But we also know for people with dementia, especially where memory has been impacted, that a lot of people rediscover elements of themselves because the music is engaging different parts of the brain. Music seems to be stored differently as memories in the brain.

“We could often see people who are not only uplifted by re-engaging with songs they might not have heard for a little while, but are talking and communicating in a way that perhaps they weren’t outside of the music session.”

There is a waiting list for Singing for the Brain sessions, but Chris is keen for anyone affected by dementia to contact The Alzheimer’s Society for help.

He says: “Our dementia adviser service is a free method of support for people with dementia, and carers, friends and family of people with dementia, which is built around providing information advice.

“The core is day-to-day problem solving and strategies for living around or responding to the symptoms of that person’s dementia, and how you’re experiencing it.

“There are lots of really nice community groups and activities out there that are dementia friendly, but if you’re a person who would like to do more things themselves we can help you find ways of getting engaged with those as well.”

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This story was made possible by you, our readers, and a host of organisations in the city, through our Crowdfund Lancashire appeal, which unlocked support from the Lancashire Culture and Sport Fund provided by Lancashire County Council. You can see all our coverage and, if you know of an arts project or event in the city we should be covering, you can submit it for our event listings and/or send details to contactus@blogpreston.co.uk for us to cover it as a story on the Blog.