We are very proud to share that our Musical Director Matthew Lazenby is now a published author!
‘The Pitfalls of Being a House Guest’, which reflects upon and guides you through the many things that can go wrong when spending the night as an overnight guest in someone else’s home, is now available for purchase!
Creaky floorboards during the night, bathroom doors that don’t lock and terrifying pets: these are just three of the potential hazards commonly encountered when staying as an overnight guest in someone else’s home. The Pitfalls of Being a House Guest guides you through a night spent on such unfamiliar territory, supplying crucial advice and comforting anecdotes as you tread this tightrope of peril and faux pas.
It is a very funny book and well worth a read. A great choice for the upcoming summer holidays.
Copies can be purchased from The York Bookshop online or over the phone or from Amazon. Copies will also be available for purchase (and signing!) at rehearsals for £7.99
With just a few weeks left to go till we return to singing at HCS we want to tell you about some exciting changes that have come about from our members at the AGM and from a lot of work by the committee and musical staff over the summer holidays. We may not have been singing but we’ve still been working away!
At the AGM members voted to make two changes to how membership of the society works.
Firstly our members voted for all members to be expected to take part in all terms and concerts. Previously the summer term has been seen as optional but sadly this limits what we can do in the summer term and drastically reduces our income which impacts the whole year. When members take part year round we can work on exciting projects like the one we are planning for next summer. Our summer concert for 2024 will be a joint project with another choir, Headingley Voices, and we will be singing “The Armed Man” by Karl Jenkins in St Chad’s Church on Saturday the 29th June. We look forward to being able to do more projects like this with all our members present in future. If you are not able or choose not to attend one term please can you let us know so we can keep your membership open and plan accordingly.
Our members also voted to change our subs structure to a yearly payment of £135 which you can choose to pay in two instalments in September and January of £67.50 or three instalments of £45 at the start of each term if you prefer. As always, we never want finances to be a barrier to membership and so please do get in touch with the Chair or Treasurer if you need to pay a lower amount in order to be a member. We’d rather have you with us than not! Similarly, if you are in a position to donate more to the society than the basic subs rate then thank you, we’d really appreciate that. As with all music societies we are struggling post pandemic and in the cost of living crisis and your donations make a real difference.
As part of our fresh start this year we have two new, important documents for you to read. Our Vice Chair Anne has been hard at work producing a Code Of Conduct for members and a Safeguarding document for us to implement.
Our Code Of Conduct brings us in line with many other Choral Societies in setting some expectations for behaviour and performance. This isn’t a negative thing but rather a way for us to improve standards and get the most out of our rehearsals and concerts and perform to the best of our abilities.
Our safeguarding policy is designed to make everyone feel safe at all times with HCS and to set out a clear plan for what will happen if things go wrong. If you have any safeguarding concerns at any time you can email our Vice Chair and Safeguarding Officer, Anne Cherry, on Safeguarding@HorsforthChoralSociety.org
Please read both of these documents and refer to them as necessary. You can also find them in the members area of our new website.
Which brings me nicely to our new website! We have a new, comprehensive website at
which includes as much information as possible about singing with us, both for those looking to join and for those who are already members. There is still some information to add but have a look around and do get in touch if you think of anything that would be useful to go on there. It’s been created by our Chair so please email Chair@HorsforthChoralSociety.org with any feedback.
You will notice a section on the website called Meet the choir which Sandra has been spotlighted on. We’d love to add other member profiles so if you’re happy to share your story of your time with HCS, with or without a photo, please send your details to Heather on the Chair’s email above and we’ll add you on.
You’ll also see from this newsletter and the Contact Us page of the website that we have a range of new email addresses that you can contact us on. The two main ones are ContactUs@HorsforthChoralSociety.org and Members@HorsforthChoralSociety.org. We will no longer be using the old Gmail address but if you do contact us on there you will receive a reminder email of the new address so don’t worry about remembering it.
ContactUs@HorsforthChoralSociety.org will be the main email address that everyone uses and that goes straight to our secretary. This address will also send out a monthly newsletter to all those signed up to it to keep them updated with all things HCS.
Members@HorsforthChoralSociety.org is for members only and will send out a weekly update email with helpful information for rehearsals such as feedback and practise notes for between rehearsals and other info that will help us get the best from our time together. You can also get in touch with any member related queries on this address and they will be picked up by the team.
We return to singing together on Monday 4th September. Rehearsal starts at 7.30pm prompt so please arrive in plenty of time to pay subs and collect your music. If possible we would prefer subs to be paid online, straight to our bank, the details will be sent just before we return.
The music we will be working on when we return and resources to help with learning it can be found on our website under Autumn Concert Resources. The programme is as follows –
Haydn – Insanae et Vanae Curae
Mozart – Ave Verum
Schubert – The Lord is my Shepherd
Beethoven – Elegischer Gesang
Rossini – Salve Regina
Cherubini – Requiem in C Minor
These are some truly beautiful pieces and we look forward to learning them with our Musical Staff.
Finally, our Next Concert is on the 17th November at 7.30pm at St Margaret’s Church, Horsforth. Please share the details of this with friends and family so that we can have a graft turnout to share our performance with.
Although we haven’t been singing together the committee and our musical staff have still been very busy putting things together ready for our next year of Horsforth Choral Society.
We have a great year ahead of concerts and we hope you will enjoy what has been planned for you.
We also hope you enjoy this new website and our new emails.
