Designed by Angus Walker, a helpful member of LVC, the new website is up to date and gives information on our upcoming events
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!”
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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.
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!
