|
Be Proud in Isolation!
Premiered on YouTube at 5pm, Sunday 28 June 2020 Despite the difficult times we’re going through, The Fourth Choir felt that it's more important than ever to celebrate Pride this year. So, we've created this celebration video on YouTube. We sing for you and show you how we’ve kept the Choir going through three months of Lockdown. Some of our favourite people drop in to say hello and we tell you about Invisible Rainbow, an exciting project that we’re developing to celebrate the unacknowledged contribution that LGBT+ artists have made to rock and pop music since the 1950s. The Parade may have been cancelled but the party hasn’t! So, get your Pride glad rags on, pour yourself a drink and join us. The event is Captioned. |
The Fourth Choir stands in solidarity with the black community in the US, the UK and around the world.
We demand justice for George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, Ahmaud Arbery and all victims of racist violence.
We honour all those fighting for change, through protest, organising, donations, raising awareness, providing medical and mental health support, journalism and legal action.
As an LGBT+ choir we owe a debt to all those who took risks and fought back to attain the rights we enjoy today. Figures like Stormé DeLarverie, Marsha P Johnson and Sylvia Rivera – queer black and Latinx campaigners who took a stand against harassment by a corrupt police force and kicked off the Stonewall uprising.
More recently, Lady Phyll’s work founding UK Black Pride in 2005, and subsequently in partnership with Stonewall, has been transformative in celebrating, supporting and empowering queer people of colour in Britain. This has uplifted the whole LGBT+ community.
As a (currently) majority white choir, we also recognise that this is not only an external struggle. During our last online rehearsal, our members took time to reflect on and affirm our own responsibilities in practising active allyship to our black and BAME communities, challenging racism and effecting change in our own circles.
While music and the arts have enormous power to bring people together and raise awareness, they also have barriers to entry, are selective in their representation of creative talent and can easily be vehicles for culturally insensitive performance or appropriation.
We celebrate the black composers, arrangers and writers whose works we have sung, the singers and musicians we have performed with, and the actors and readers who have contributed to our concerts.
But we know we can do better. Classical music (and choral music in particular) is often overwhelmingly white across its performers, audiences, composers and librettists. We know there is more we can do to change this, through our membership, programming and collaborations and are determined to do so.
There is no pride for some of us without liberation for all of us.
Please support and donate to:
UK Black Pride - promoting unity and cooperation among LGBTQ people of diasporic communities in the UK
Black Lives Matter UK - working for a world where Black lives are no longer systematically targeted for demise
Chineke! Foundation - supporting Black and Minority Ethnic classical musicians in the UK and Europe
Stephen Lawrence Charitable Trust - helping young people overcome discrimination and businesses be more inclusive of diverse talent
UK LGIG - supporting LGBTQI+ Asylum Seekers & Refugees
We demand justice for George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, Ahmaud Arbery and all victims of racist violence.
We honour all those fighting for change, through protest, organising, donations, raising awareness, providing medical and mental health support, journalism and legal action.
As an LGBT+ choir we owe a debt to all those who took risks and fought back to attain the rights we enjoy today. Figures like Stormé DeLarverie, Marsha P Johnson and Sylvia Rivera – queer black and Latinx campaigners who took a stand against harassment by a corrupt police force and kicked off the Stonewall uprising.
More recently, Lady Phyll’s work founding UK Black Pride in 2005, and subsequently in partnership with Stonewall, has been transformative in celebrating, supporting and empowering queer people of colour in Britain. This has uplifted the whole LGBT+ community.
As a (currently) majority white choir, we also recognise that this is not only an external struggle. During our last online rehearsal, our members took time to reflect on and affirm our own responsibilities in practising active allyship to our black and BAME communities, challenging racism and effecting change in our own circles.
While music and the arts have enormous power to bring people together and raise awareness, they also have barriers to entry, are selective in their representation of creative talent and can easily be vehicles for culturally insensitive performance or appropriation.
We celebrate the black composers, arrangers and writers whose works we have sung, the singers and musicians we have performed with, and the actors and readers who have contributed to our concerts.
But we know we can do better. Classical music (and choral music in particular) is often overwhelmingly white across its performers, audiences, composers and librettists. We know there is more we can do to change this, through our membership, programming and collaborations and are determined to do so.
There is no pride for some of us without liberation for all of us.
Please support and donate to:
UK Black Pride - promoting unity and cooperation among LGBTQ people of diasporic communities in the UK
Black Lives Matter UK - working for a world where Black lives are no longer systematically targeted for demise
Chineke! Foundation - supporting Black and Minority Ethnic classical musicians in the UK and Europe
Stephen Lawrence Charitable Trust - helping young people overcome discrimination and businesses be more inclusive of diverse talent
UK LGIG - supporting LGBTQI+ Asylum Seekers & Refugees
We are London's LGBT + chamber choir for advanced singers
|
The Fourth Choir was founded in September 2013 by a group of LGBT + singers aspiring to sing classical and modern choral works to the highest possible standard. Led by the highly acclaimed Dominic Ellis-Peckham, one of the UK’s finest young choral conductors, our goal is to represent the LGBT + community on London’s world-class classical music scene.
|
What the critics say
|
"There are few places I’d rather be at Christmastime than crooning carols in the Wooden O with Toksvig, her merry eight-strong cast and singers from the Fourth Choir."
The Guardian on Christmas at the (Snow) Globe at Shakespeare's Globe 
|
|
"The Fourth Choir were faultless in their skill and dedication, especially the enchanting sopranos, and it was clear that much passion, dedication and love had gone into this project, with each composition meticulously selected."
The Upcoming on Stonewall Warriors at Heaven on the 50th Anniversary of the Stonewall Riots |
|
“In a moving big finale, the Fourth Choir floods through the venue singing the Pet Shop Boys’ Liberation, each holding a candle. And everything seems that little bit brighter."
Time Out on After Edward at Shakespeare's Globe 
|
|
“A powerful, poignant performance”
Sadiq Khan, Mayor of London, at the 2019 National UK National Holocaust Memorial in Westminster |
|
"The closing track, "If We Only Had Love," finds Jungr and Safir alone in the company of the twenty-one member Fourth Choir who provide lush accompaniment for her rendition of Brel's epic hymn to love. A stunning way to conclude this stunning album."
All About Jazz on Barb Jungr: Bob, Brel & Me 
|
