INCLUDE: Taking steps towards change

Mike Cocke, Secretary of the Luton Choral Society, provides us with an update on his group's involvement with Making Music's INCLUDE programme.

Luton Choral Society were delighted to be selected by Making Music in their INCLUDE programme in September 2023 to work with them on access and inclusion in leisure-time music-making, and to find ways for our group to be more diverse and more inclusive and hence to grow our membership. 

What we've been doing

We have been involved in a number of webinars and workshops with Making Music over the last year, and our knowledge about the issues of access and inclusion is improving. As a result we have taken a number of steps to help make membership of our society more inclusive and more fun. Many of the improvements are small, but they all help and add up: 

• We have updated the membership page of our website with more information about joining our society and we have included a video of our rehearsal venue so prospective members can visualise the arrangements before they come. 
• We have added a Welcome to Luton Choral Society document to the membership page so people can get a good understanding of who we are and what we do, with the hope that it will answer many of the questions they may have, and help them to settle in quickly.
• We have added the works we are currently rehearsing onto our website with easy to use links to rehearsal tracks for each voice part, so everyone can practice in their own time in addition to our weekly rehearsals.
• We have arranged for a choir member, who was having difficulty blending in with other members in their voice part, to have a one-to-one session with our conductor to help them work out how to take steps to overcome their difficulty.
• We arranged a Come and Sing Day with a varied selection of music including some versions of popular songs, and a round which we all learnt by ear, as a way to invite a large gathering including people who are not comfortable with reading music from a score. The day also included discussion sessions on barriers to inclusion led by a representative of Making Music which was very useful and informative. 
• We have arranged a Festive Carol Concert in December jointly with the Luton Concert Band, a brass and woodwind band, so we can each benefit from the abilities of each other, and our audience will get a lovely varied programme of works for the evening, including some community carol singing, so we can all enjoy the health benefits of singing. 

'Many of the improvements are small, but they all help and add up.'

Make Music Day

We also entered into the spirit of Make Music Day on Friday 21 June with a concert which was free for the audience, and involved music. Because of our involvement with Making Music in the INCLUDE programme, we were fortunate to have Arts Council financial support for this event, and so we were able to host an event which we wanted everyone to enjoy.

We wanted a number of local music groups to come along and perform their own music, so the evening had an eclectic programme. We ended up with four groups who were able to join in, all with their own music genre – the Griffin Players, who perform musicals and pantomimes; the BIG Hat Factory Choir, who perform popular songs; the Luton Concert Band who perform brass and woodwind works; and ourselves, Luton Choral Society, who perform classical choral works. 

We hired a theatre in the centre of Luton so it was easily accessible by public transport, and which had a stage and comfortable raked seating. Some of the seats were removable to allow for wheelchair users, and there was a ramp and a lift for step-free access to the venue. It had a capacity of 233, and because the event was free, accommodating, and interesting, we had a capacity audience. The event was ticketed to ensure that we didn’t have problems at the venue with overcrowding, but the tickets were free. 

The event started with the Luton Choral Society conductor teaching a round to the audience who learnt the tune by ear, and then the audience was split into four sections and the song was sung as a round producing lovely harmonies. This started the evening off with everyone singing and being involved which was great. 

Each group then performed their own songs and pieces so we all enjoyed their genre of music, and then at the end as a finale we all sang the Hallelujah chorus from Handel’s Messiah including as many of the audience who wanted to join in. The stage was packed for this last chorus, but it’s such a well-known and lovely chorus that the evening ended on a high. 

Make Music Day programme

Find out more about Luton Choral Society on their website and follow them on Facebook

If you would like to know more about anything in this blog or you would like to tell us about your own inclusion work, please get in touch with Elizabeth Palmer, Inclusion Focus Programme Manager for the INCLUDE programme