Society Spotlight: Harmony Gospel Choir

Harmony Gospel Choir is Manchester’s biggest, jolliest, most soulful student gospel choir. We began over ten years ago and have been bringing the joy and fun of gospel music to our local community (for free!) ever since. We sing a mixture of Motown and classic gospel music, with the occasional pop tune thrown in for good measure. We’re lead by our musical director Tosin Akindele, who has been singing in gospel choirs her whole life and has a deep passion and love for gospel music, and our current chairs Hayley Humphreys and Sam Jones.

We hold a concert at the end of each term the profits of which all go to charity. We’ve also performed at many exciting events across Manchester- we’ve been a regular feature at Summer Pangea for the last three years, we’ve flash mobbed all over campus and last year we performed at the Parklife festival. We recently entered into the national University Gospel Choir of the Year competition, which could mean us competing in the final in a 2000-seat venue in the West End.

We also love to have a good social- our hilariously silly curry and karaoke evenings being a particular highlight. We also hold a number of socials not focused on alcohol throughout term- we’ve had trips to Alton Towers, Laser Quest, film nights, ice skating and we’re currently planning a group road trip to Chester Zoo (I know, right??). We also love developing our vocal skills together, holding introductory gospel-singing workshops and offering a number of opportunities for soloists and budding gospel singers.

Our concerts have raised almost £5000 in the last three years for causes ranging from building toilets in Uganda to supporting a women’s shelter in El Salvador. However, the way we most reach out to the community is through our smaller performances during term-time. HGC have performed at a diverse range of community events from the Student Action on Refugees (STAR) Sleep-out, North West Air Ambulance’s Christmas fundraiser, numerous student fundraising gigs at the Ram and Shackle in Fallowfield (for causes such as orphanages in Belarus and Amnesty International) to singing carols with local children for ‘Love Withington’. We also performed for children with disabilities at the David Lewis centre in Alderley Edge, and are currently planning performances at local children’s hospitals, which we’re all excited about. We are looking to become even more involved with the great work being done by people across Manchester and we would be very happy to perform at any event or fundraiser you may be organizing, or even just to come and cheer up some vulnerable people in the community.

If you would like to join us feel free to get in touch, there are no spiritual or musical requirements for joining. We welcome literally everybody, so if you’d love to sing funky music in a community of fun, smiley people please do come say hi. No auditions, just the most fun you could have with your Wednesday afternoon.

We rehearse every Wednesday during term time 4-6pm upstairs in Jabez Clegg, Dover Street, M13 9GB.

For more info e-mail [email protected]

Follow us on Twitter: @ManchesterHGC

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