The Hawkstone Farmers Choir - choir and community

If you are a Saturday night TV viewer, you may have seen the Hawkstone Choir storm to victory last week on Britain’s Got Talent. This plucky group of farmers had originally been put together for a beer advert but quickly discovered that once they had started singing together, they didn’t want to stop.

What has been lovely about watching the Hawkstone Choir’s progress has been how singing together has relieved much of the deep loneliness experienced by so many in working in agriculture across the country. Members of the choir have been very vocal about how the choir has impacted positively on their wellbeing. Many of them weren’t even aware of how isolated they were feeling until they started singing and feeling the bond that being in a choir naturally forms.

It’s no surprise to those of us that already sing with our own choirs that this was the result for this group of people; that they found a deep sense of community and belonging nestled between the notes.

Singing in a choir naturally fosters community; where a group shares effort and accomplishment from rehearsing and performing, bonds inevitably grow. By synchronising breath and harmonising voices, group singing triggers the release of bonding hormones like oxytocin and endorphins, lowering stress and rapidly building deep interpersonal trust.

This feeling of community is something we hold very dear at National Youth Choir. Every young person that chooses to sing with us, every member of staff that works tirelessly to give the singers the very best experience, every audience member that buys a ticket, every generous donor and volunteer that gives their money and time to us, is an integral member of the NYC community.

When we ask our members at the end of each course how being a part of National Youth Choir makes them feel, ‘I feel like I belong’ is the response we hear the most. Of course, we are a national community that only gets to physically meet in person a few times a year, but the strength of the bonds made through singing together means that our community sustains even through months of not seeing each other

We hope that seeing the joy the Hawkstone Choir share when singing together will inspire many more people to seek out a choir to join so that they can find their own singing communities.

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