Choir springs into action

Choir-on-the-Green will be performing on Saturday 28 March as part of Étoile Events’ Northchurch Spring Jazz at Northchurch Social Centre.

The choir celebrated its 10th anniversary last year, performing songs ranging from Aretha Franklin’s Joy To The World to Mozart’s Lacrimosa.

During the month leading up to Christmas, they sang at 14 gigs, raising some £30,000 for DENS, Gaddesden Place RDA (Riding for the Disabled Association), the Hospice of St Francis, and other local charities.

The choir’s founder and musical director is Paul Bullen, a talented keyboard player and arranger, who has toured with Spice Girls’ Melanie C among others.

‘Choir-On-The-Green are fun, friendly choirs for all ages and abilities. I started my first choir in 2015 as I’d moved to a new area and didn’t know anyone. I thought it would be a good way to make some friends. Since then we’ve grown several choirs and a lovely community of hundreds of people,’ said Paul.

One of the choir’s longest-serving members, tenor Brian Hunt, said: ‘When we joined Choir-on-the-Green for its first session 10 years ago we numbered 17. By the time of our first gig at a local garden centre, notable only for a chainsaw cutting Christmas trees during our performance, the numbers had increased to the mid-twenties. Since then, the choir has grown exponentially and now numbers several hundred.’