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This is the website of the Fleet Singers. We are an amateur choir, based in London NW3, open to all. There are no auditions, you do not need any singing experience or the ability to read music. The only requirement is enthusiasm!
Summer 2025
Following our very successful Come and Sing Haydn’s Nelson Mass 6th April and one Monday off
we’ve now just 5 Monday rehearsals for our part in Carmina Burana
at the Royal Festival Hall with Barts Choir on Wednesday 21st May.
We won’t be meeting Easter Monday but will be rehearsing on the early May Bank Holiday.
Some of us have and/or will also rehearse with the Barts Choir on 3 Saturdays.
For family and friends wishing to join the audience, details and tickets from RFH.
The Fleet Singers are not mentioned in the RFH programme but Barts Choir
is definitely expecting us to take part!
After another one week break Bank Holiday Monday 26th May we will have 5 rehearsals in June
singing from Community Voiceworks a collection of fun, reflective, empowering, and moving songs.
We hope to perform at a community event in July.
Spring 2025
We’ve exciting weeks and months ahead!
Monday rehearsals starting 13th Jan (see Diary) preparing for
Come and Sing Haydn’s Nelson Mass at St Anne’s Highgate 6th April
More details on Come and Sing page
or go straight to TicketSource for info and booking.
PLUS
Singing Carmina Burana at the Royal Festival Hall with Barts Choir 21st May.
Wassail! Carols of Comfort and Joy by Alexander L’Estrange
It was Showtime!
Around 80 people + all the performers enjoyed a warm (31 degrees) evening of songs from classic films.
You can still view the JustGiving page to see the comments and updates. A total £1822 donations were raised for Alzheimer’s Research UK. https://www.justgiving.com/page/silverscreenconcertfundraiser.
Friday 19 July Concert
7.30pm Upstairs at the Gatehouse!
Beth Burrows and the Fleet Singers conducted by Phil Wilcox,
accompanied by Philip Godfrey on piano and Doug Grannell on double-bass.
The concert is free to attend, but tickets must be booked.
Box Office 020 8340 3488 It’s Showtime! (ticketsolve.com)
There will be a collection for Alzheimer’s Research UK.
The concert celebrates songs from films with the Fleet Singers singing beautiful arrangements of film favourites like Over The Rainbow, Singing in the Rain, The Way You Look Tonight and Moon River.
The choir will be joined by soloist Beth Burrows in I could have danced all night.
Award-winning actor, singer and writer, Beth Burrows, will also present material drawn from her two critically-acclaimed stage shows – ‘Sirens of the Silver Screen’ and ‘Luck Be A Lady’.
Expect cool arrangements of catchy numbers which were performed on the big screen by Audrey Hepburn, Judy Garland, Marilyn Monroe, Gene Kelly, Fred Astaire and Frank Sinatra.
Summer Term 2024 Songs from the Silver Screen
Mondays 29th April to 15th July (minus Bank Holidays 6th and 27th May)
We will be working to put on a concert the following weekend with
Beth Burrows a local actress and singer (www.bethburrows.com).
We will as ever be led by Phil Wilcox and accompanied by Philip Godfrey who will also be providing arrangements for some of our songs.
Spring Term 2024 Bob Chilcott’s Requiem
Mondays 15th January – 8th April for performance Sunday 14th April
We will take a break Monday 12th February
and again on Easter Monday 1st April. See details in Diary.
We wanted to work on a more substantial choral work on the lines of the Goodall Requiem we performed in April 2022 and have opted for Bob Chilcott’s Requiem which we will perform Sunday 14th April.
New singers welcome – especially tenors and basses! FREE taster for newcomers.
Autumn Term 2023 Remembrance and Christmas
Our autumn term starts Monday 11 September (see details in Diary)
This term we’ll be doing a performance around Remembrance Day, including several pieces by SS Wesley, Byrd’s Ave Verum Corpus, Elgar’s They are at Rest and Sibelius’s This is my Song.
And after this we’ll learn some new Christmas pieces for the Christmas season.
Sunday 17th December the Fleet Singers taking part in the Gospel Oak Methodist Church Carol Service.
Monday 18th December singing at Baker Street Station for Health Poverty Action #ChoirsForChange.
New singers welcome – especially tenors and basses! FREE taster for newcomers.
Seasons of Love Summer Concert
Sunday, July 9th, 5:30pm. Emmanuel Church, West Hampstead. NW6 1JU
Fleet Singers are teaming up with Kensington Choir,
bringing you Seasons of Love.
Musical hits, Appalachian folk, spirituals, Shakespeare, funk and more.
Tickets £7 (children free) from https://kensingtonchoir.com/ or on the door.
Summer Term 2023 Rehearsals: Hits from the Shows
Mondays 24th April – 10th July
This 10 week term we will be working on Hits from the Shows with a view to joining Kensington Choir directed by Roseanna Skikun – for a concert 9th July.
The day after the concert, Monday 10th July, we will meet for one-off workshop session.
We hope some of the singers who boosted our numbers for the 2nd April Come and Sing will feel inspired to join us for this term’s rehearsals exploring a different style of music.
We will as ever be guided by the enthusiastic
Phil Wilcox and accompanied by our brilliant pianist Philip Godfrey.
Whether or not you came to the Come and Sing, new choir members are always welcome.
If you are coming for a taster or joining the choir, either email info@fleetsingers.org.uk or just turn up for 7.30pm and say hello to Bev at the desk.
Come and Sing Mozart Requiem Sunday 2nd April 2023
A wonderful experience!
We were delighted to welcome over 50 guests for our workshop and performance! There were barely enough chairs for the audience as we had moved 50 of them to the choir space. Phil sang the bass solo at the same time as conducting behind his back. Philip ingeniously played the wind and brass orchestral parts on the piano. We were magnificently supported by four stunning soloists (including Phil) and the Castillo string quartet. And the sound we made was pretty good!
“a really uplifting experience”
“enjoyed it enormously”
“just brilliant, from the fabulous and enthusiastic leading of Phil Wilcox, to the excellent quartet, soloists and pianist and the welcome coffee and hot cross buns!”
More photos and comments will appear on the News page and/or the special Come and Sing page with details of the event: fleetsingers.org.uk/come-and-sing-mozart-requiem
Spring Term 2023 – 16 January to 27 March
Mozart Requiem
Spring Term rehearsals working on
Mozart Requiem in preparation
for the 2nd April Come and Sing
Autumn Term 2022 – 12 September to 12 December
Our new term starts Monday 12th September with a return to the pre-Covid times of 7.30-9.30pm with a (Fairtrade) tea/coffee + biscuit break.
This year we will plunge straight into preparing for our Christmas concert which will be at St John’s United Reform Church in New Barnet, an exciting modern building with excellent acoustics (and ventilation) on December 16th. Messiah and Carols is a joyful and impressive programme of Christmas movements of Handel’s Messiah interleaved with much-loved traditional carols in harmony arrangements, including soloists and accompanied on the organ. The carols include Joy to the World, In the Bleak Midwinter, Silent Night, Merry Christmas.
Summer Soirée – Sunday 10th July 2022 6pm
We are now ready to share the fruits of our summer term rehearsals in an informal concert.
Music by Vaughan Williams, Barber and our accompanist local composer Philip Godfrey,
along with a Prayer for Ukraine. There will also be solos from members of the choir.
Sunday 10th July 2022 6pm at Gospel Oak Methodist Church, Agincourt Road,
Corner with Lisburne Road, London NW3 2NT [map]
Free entry, donations welcomed
Summer Term 2022
Following our successful 3rd April performance of Howard Goodall’s Eternal Light Requiem and a short Easter break, we will be regrouping Monday 25th April for our 10 week summer term.
We’ll be working towards a summer concert performing some of the pieces we spent time on in lockdown including “Making Poems” which was commissioned from our accompanist Philip with words from Fleet Singers alto Cicely Herbert who co-founded Poems on the Underground.
We will also be revising another piece composed by Philip Godfrey, Day by Day, a setting the words of the Prayer of St Richard of Chichester which we recorded during lockdown.
We will also be learning some of Vaughan Williams 5 Folk Songs,
A Prayer for Ukraine and a fun upbeat African number called Shosholoza.
We continue to meet for rehearsals at the Gospel Oak Methodist Church, with Covid precautions. The rehearsals are hybrid, so members can attend on Zoom if they prefer. We are welcoming new members – contact us by email and come along for a FREE trial session.
Subscriptions
£60 for ten weeks – cheques made payable to Fleet Singers.