Useful references for singers.

Choirs and orchestras

Finchley Chamber Choir: regular concerts in Trinity Church, North Finchley, N12 7NN with this smaller and more expert choir. A good local place to hear choral repertoire.

Highgate Choral Society has been around for over 140 years, making them one of the longest-established amateur choirs. A large choir of around 200 members, they meet at Parliament Hill School. To join you need to do a simple audition.

North London Chorus rehearses on Thursdays up the road in East Finchley

Finding music in London

bachtrack is by far the best concert listings site I know of. If you have a free Saturday or fancy a lunchtime concert, this is your spot.

Charities and promoters

Nordoff Robbins is a charity which uses music in music therapy and community building. Their UK centre is at 2 Lissenden Gardens, NW5 1PQ — just round the corner from the school where we rehearse. They run concerts, usually pretty classy, benefitting the charity, a few times a year.

music&friends run choir festivals and international meetings.

RunBySingers set up musical holidays, which always sound very tempting.

The London Sangerstevne is a series of choral festivals.

Philip Norman Music Services do a lot of internet/email promotion of amateur music events — several of the above are from them.

Web indexes

British Choirs on the Net – over 4,000 choirs listed nationwide, including of course, the North Camden Chorus

Small Choirs Website claims 200+ free pieces of music for church choirs, and occasional festivals.

Free scores

The IMSLP / Petrucci Music Library is an excellent place to find free downloadable music scores.

ChoralWiki (formerly the Choral Public Domain Library) has a large collection of free downloadable material, mostly choral scores. Some scores are of very good quality, with excellent volunteer editors, some are rougher.

Train your voice

Vocalist – exercises for singers