AUBURN AND THE COMMUNITY CHOIR

Some weeks ago we interviewed the massively talented Liz Lenten of Auburn, and amongst other things she talked about various community projects on which she has been working including a kid's choir, who appeared on stage with the band during some of their recent gigs.

I took this from her website:

Formerly known as the South Holland Centre CONTEMPORARY YOUTH CHOIR this open access, non audition community youth choir was started last September, by vocal coach Liz Lenten and The South Holland Centre.

Having secured as their patron BBC’s Suzy Digby (OBE) and received endorsements from the wonderful Howard Goodall 'Anything Liz Lenten does has a dusting of magic about it and I am thrilled she is leading the creation of this new community choir for young people in Lincolnshire. All I can say is to anyone who is thinking 'shall I, shan't I, maybe, maybe not?', just GO GO GO!) and TV’s Gareth Malone ‘You might think singing in a choir would be boring... You'd be WRONG! Singing is a wonderful way to meet new people.. .. You can make friends whilst enjoying a great activity that's both fun and challenging – best of luck!’

VIBE have received funding support from soundLINCS, the Lincolnshire Co-op and the Lincolnshire Music Service, and launched into their first performance, just 8 weeks after they started, by singing at the ‘Turning on the Christmas Lights’ in Spalding Town Centre in December 2009. Since then they have performed in the South Holland Centre auditorium, and most recently at Oxford Castle. The young people help to choose the songs that they sing, and recently performed with THE LONDON MOZART PLAYERS, together with Sing South Holland at The Spalding International Food and Music Festival– a wonderful end to their first year together.

The group meet once a week in term time, on THURSDAYS FROM 5.30 – 6.45pm, and sing a contemporary repertoire from composers as diverse as Howard Goodall, Snow Patrol & The Beatles as well as traditional folk songs from around the world. There is no audition and anyone aged between 8 and 18 years is welcome to join.

Rob Ayling took these photographs at one of the recent gigs, and we are very happy to be able to share them with you. We think that this is a fantastic project and are very proud to be involved, albeit only completely tangentally.