Wow, we can’t believe that we are almost at the end of another year. And what a year it has been!
At Love Soul Choir, we love looking back and reflecting on the incredible memories we’ve made each year. So without further ado, here’s what we’ve been up to over the last 12 months.
Performances 🎙️
Performing is a huge part of being a member of Love Soul Choir. 2023 has been a year of some truly epic performance opportunities!
We’ve performed a total of 29 times and have been to some incredible venues. We were delighted to be welcomed back to Westquay Shopping Centre, the ABP Southampton Marathon, Garmin New Forest Marathon and Swanage Lifeboat Week.
But, we have also sung at some amazing new venues/events including Rhinefield House, the Dorset Plane Pull at Bournemouth Airport and at Moors Valley to name a few. We couldn’t not mention our appearance on ITV Meridian as part of their Kings Coronation broadcast too. Did you catch us singing on your TV? 👑
2023 was also the year of One Sound: Musicals. We teamed up with our friends over at Sing Now Choir and Sound Pop Academy for this sold-out performance at Mayflower Theatre in May. We last performed at Mayflower Theatre in 2020 and it was super special to be back!
In December, the Christmas performances didn’t stop. We performed at Haskins Garden Centre in Ferndown as part of a charity night, at John Lewis in Southampton, at the gorgeous Rhinefield House and Southampton General Hospital to spread some cheer for those who may be staying in hospital this Christmas.
December was also the month of our Winter Show. A staple in the Love Soul Choir calendar, we loved performing 21 of our songs at The Point in Eastleigh. It was an incredible evening and the energy really was electric! ⚡️
Green Plan and IAA Programme 🌿
At Love Soul Choir, we’re committed to improving the planet we live on and working towards being a more inclusive group. After all, we’re more than just a choir.
Our Green Plan is all about supporting the natural world and encouraging members to reduce their carbon footprint. This year, we organised lots of Green Plan events for our members. We held a live Q&A event for members with our lovely environmental expert, Rachel, hosted a beach clean at Hengistbury Head, a city clean at Southampton Common and went on a gorgeous walk in the New Forest too.
In 2023, we also launched our ‘I’m An Ally (IAA) Programme’. The programme is our way of encouraging members to self-reflect on issues such as race, gender, sexual identity, mental health and neurodivergence to name a few. It’s designed to help us as a choir be more genuinely inclusive and it has led to some really amazing, open and honest conversations between members. One of our members said:
“The IAA programme has been great this year! The conversation starters have been really thought provoking, and have reminded me to quietly reflect or make changes.”
Socials 💬
Feeling connected is a really big part of Love Soul Choir. We’re really proud of the culture we’ve built and genuinely feel that things have been better than ever in 2023. From our survey, this year, we were so pleased to hear that 100% of our members leave sessions feeling happier than when they arrive.
We also had an amazing final event of 2023; a Christmas social in the New Forest and as always, it was lovely for our members to come together to celebrate another incredible year at Love Soul Choir.
What’s Next? 👀
The countdown is officially on and we’re wrapping things up for 2023. We’ve recently held our end of year presentation sessions for members where we reflected on some of our highlights of 2023 and had a sneak peak of what’s happening in 2024!
It’s safe to say that our members are super excited for next year. We’ve already got some incredible performances lined up, some amazing additions to our ‘IAA Programme’, to take us one step closer to being as inclusive as we can, and we’re ready to learn some truly EPIC new songs! 💜
