FARINGDON
COMMUNITY
CHOIR
About the Choir
Faringdon Community Choir was begun by Rachel Williams in November 2021. She had been keen to start something off in her home town for a while and as COVID restrictions eased she sensed there was a real interest in a choir that was open to everyone. With help from keen members of a previous Faringdon choir the Ferndale singers, Faringdon Community Choir was born.
Benefits
Is singing in a choir for me?
The choir offers all singers to sing as part of a group, regardless of previous experience. The goal of the choir is to enjoy making music, improve our vocal skills and develop our skills. However, extra benefits are the camaraderie we feel as a group, making new friends and the mental health benefits of singing and making beautiful music!
What we Sing
Is it my kind of music?
As yet we have not calendared any public performances, but we hope that that will come in the near future. We work on a variety of repertoire including pop, songs from musicals and folk.
How we Work
Do I have to be able to read music?
There is no necessity to be able to read music, although we do provide ‘the dots’ for everyone along with the lyrics. All the music is taught by ear, with the music there just as a help for anyone who wants it.
About Rachel
Rachel has been involved in making music from childhood, firstly in the school orchestra, then at university, and later as a music teacher, both in the Indian Himalayan foothills and in schools in the Midlands in Oxfordshire. Whilst class teaching was a mainstay of her work in schools, extra-curricular was always her passion, running choirs, orchestras, folk groups and putting on fabulous school musicals. Many of her students have now gone on to pursue careers in music and the arts, or at least are continuing their musical exploits beyond their other jobs.
When Rachel finished full time school teaching three years ago, after a 25-year career, her efforts were put into instrumental teaching, playing and community music. She is a talented percussionist, but also plays piano, clarinet, saxophone, whistle, bass guitar and melodeon! She currently also works as Assistant Producer of Folk Weekend: Oxford, a role she’s been in for the last two years. In her minimal spare time, Rachel plays in a local band, Morris dances and runs a local folk session.