Military Wives Choirs celebrates its 10th anniversary with an exciting show at Exeter Cathedral
The Military Wives Choirs marks a decade of bringing women in the military community together to sing, share and support with a spectacular series of UK-wide concerts.
The Military Wives Choirs will celebrate 10 years since the formation of the charity with a series of five concerts taking place across the UK, each celebrating the uplifting network that the Military Wives Choirs has created through the power of singing.
The series will comprise concerts at St Albans Cathedral (Saturday 18 June 2022), Winchester Cathedral (Friday 22 July 2022), Lincoln Cathedral (Friday 2 September), Exeter Cathedral (Saturday 24 September 2022), and Greyfriars Kirk in Edinburgh (Saturday 29 October 2022).
The programme for each concert will include a selection of new arrangements, alongside some of the Military Wives Choirs’ best loved songs, together with readings from choir members and friends of the Military Wives Choirs.
Each concert in the series will feature soprano and Ambassador, Laura Wright. Laura has a long-standing relationship with the Military Wives Choirs, having collaborated on the 2018 album “Remember” by co-writing and appearing on the track Brave.
Commenting on her long-standing relationship with the Military Wives Choirs, Laura Wright said: “It is hard to describe the impact that being part of an all-female ensemble can have, particularly as a Mum. Performing with and writing music for the Military Wives Choirs back in 2018 was such a pleasure—it gave me an enormous sense of warmth and made me feel so proud. However, after recently working closely with individual members of the Military Wives Choirs, I realised that many of these women live their whole lives with the same level of extreme isolation that many of us have just experienced for the very first time. Singing gives us emotional awareness—it allows us to recognise and express our feelings, as well as relate to the feelings of others around us. I am thoroughly delighted to be singing alongside this amazing group of women once more.”
The concerts will also feature Conductor and Artistic Director Hilary Davan Wetton, and an ensemble of musicians, including Ambassador Sean Hargreaves and arranger Lucy Mulgan.
The first concert in the series, taking place at St Albans Cathedral at 7pm on Saturday 18 June 2022, will bring together nearly 200 choir members from 15 Military Wives Choirs, including individuals from overseas choirs.
The second concert in the series will take place at Winchester Cathedral at 7.30pm on Friday 22 July 2022, hosting 160 members from 13 Military Wives Choirs. This concert will be live-streamed.
Tickets for the first concert at St Albans Cathedral are available from their website here, and tickets for the concert at Winchester Cathedral are available from their website here. Tickets will be released shortly for the remaining concerts at Lincoln Cathedral, Exeter Cathedral, and Greyfriars Kirk in Edinburgh.
The Military Wives Choirs is a community of nearly 2000 women in over 70 choirs across the UK and internationally who celebrate a love of singing and the power of shared experiences.
The first Military Wives choir was formed in 2010 by a group of women whose loved ones were deployed to Afghanistan. It was followed by more choirs, three of which were featured in Gareth Malone’s two-part BBC documentary series ‘The Choir: Military Wives’. Two hit singles and four albums followed, before a film, Military Wives, based on their story and starring Kristin Scott Thomas, Sharon Horgan and Jason Flemyng, was released in 2019.
Key Upcoming Dates
St Albans Cathedral - Saturday 18 June 2022 Winchester Cathedral - Friday 22 July 2022
Lincoln Cathedral - Friday 2 September 2022
Exeter Cathedral - Saturday 24 September 2022 Greyfriars Kirk, Edinburgh - Saturday 29 October 2022
The Military Wives Choirs is a community of nearly 2000 women in over 70 choirs across the UK and internationally, coming together to celebrate a love of singing and a communal understanding that comes from their members' shared experiences of the Armed Forces. They welcome all women whose lives are currently impacted by their military connection; the network supports each other and forms life-changing friendships that lead to new and uplifting experiences through singing
The Military Wives Choirs music-making makes a vital contribution to the choral landscape; nothing is more powerful than the collective strength and passion when the members come together to convey something which they live through every day.
As both a charity and a well-loved artist, the Military Wives Choirs captivates local communities and national audiences.
The Military Wives Choirs connects women in the military community and create a support network through the power of singing. As both an independent charity and a subsidiary of SSAFA, the Armed Forces charity, the Military Wives Choirs works collaboratively with SSAFA in their mission to provide support to our Forces and their families.
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