Nottingham Harmonic Choir director Richard Laing on moving people through music
We speak to the conductor about singing, auditioning, listening, and more...
Did you know we have one of the oldest and biggest choirs in the country? The Nottingham Harmonic Choir are a remarkable gem in the county’s music scene, and they have been performing for over 160 years.
I spoke with the choir’s director Richard Laing about highlights and challenges, what it’s like to be a member, and why it’s so special to see them sing. After going to one of their concerts, I left thinking how awe-inspiring they are.
If you’re looking for things to do in Nottingham and want to expand your musical horizons (whether you want to sing yourself or listen), there are plenty of reasons to give their concerts a try.
“There's nothing quite like the sound of 160 people belting it out — it's good for the soul.” Nottingham Harmonic Choir’s Richard Laing on music, movement, and making magic
By Eve Smallman
When nestling down in the Royal Concert Hall seats, I’m not sure what to expect. I’ve never been to a choir concert before — but I figure that seeing one of the biggest and best choirs in the country will be something special.
Nottingham Harmonic Choir was founded in 1856 and has become one of the country’s leading provincial choirs. It has 160 members who can fill a room with their voices. The person who brings them all together is Richard Laing, who is the director and the conductor.
“Choir music is something I’ve always been passionate about — I’ve always enjoyed getting to grips closely with all the extraordinary music that I'd known growing up with as a boy,” he says. When the opportunity came up to work with one of the top choirs in the country, Richard was thrilled to have the chance to work with them. “I hadn’t ever worked with a choir that big before, and I think they took a bit of a chance on me. We took to each other straight away and we haven't really looked back.”
During the last fifteen years with Richard as director, the Nottingham Harmonic Choir has had some incredible accomplishments, such as playing concerts with amazing orchestras like the BBC Symphony Orchestra. “I've not conducted those concerts — I prepared the choir for those concerts — but they’ve always been very special.” The choir have also been broadcast on BBC Radio 3’s Meet My Choir segment.
In the past, the choir have performed with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, The Hallé, as well as even providing the backing choir in a concert with ELO.
For Richard though, some of the best highlights of all are the little things that happen. “It’s the jokes and the banter in rehearsal that go back and forth, it’s the faces when you do a performance that's even better than you expected or hoped,” he explains.
One particular performance that sits in Richard’s mind is the day they came back after COVID, which was a tough time for the choir as they had to do lots of meetings online. He smiles, “Even though we were all socially distanced, when we actually all got back together, the sheer joy of being back and making music together in the same room was quite spectacular.”
In terms of the choir itself, there’s a real mixture of people. Some people have been in for 50 years, and some are brand-new members who are students or have just come to Nottingham. “It covers a big cross-section of the community and is becoming increasingly diverse,” Richard says. “I think we still have a lot of work to do with that, but we are working on it.”
For a lot of people, it’s one of their central social activities of the week, allowing them to see their friends and do something creative and therapeutic. He explains, “There's been lots of research about how singing together can really improve one's mental health, and I think that's very important for a lot of our singers.”
A lot of them fit it into other musical activities they do, with some even running their own choirs. “But they come and they choose to actually sing with us because they want that experience of a really good, big choir,” Richard tells me. “There's nothing quite like the sound of 160 people belting it out. It's good for the soul.”
Anyone can audition to be in the choir. First of all, people are encouraged to go along to a couple of rehearsals to see if it’s the kind of thing they want to do. After that, they can do an audition with Richard and a piano, singing something they already know before trying ear tests and sight reading. “That doesn't have to be perfect, but we like to see that someone's got some skills and can contribute something to the choir.” After that, they’re in. “Every five years, we re-audition the members, just to keep them on their toes,” Richard adds.
It sounds much more relaxing than The X Factor auditions. Just like these, there have been surprising moments throughout the years. “Sometimes you can't tell by looking at someone what their voice is like. You can have a great, big strapping chap who comes in and has a small, high-pitched voice. Or, you can have quite a petite woman who has got a really rich alto or mezzo-soprano voice,” Richard explains. “You can never tell by looking at what someone says, but once they open their mouth, it's such an exciting moment when they do that for the first time.”
This can be a terrifying moment, with some not having sung on their own before to anyone else. “It takes a lot of courage to get up and do that — people have to really want to join to put themselves through it,” Richard tells me. “Some people come in shaking, but they usually go away smiling, which is a lovely thing to see.”
Richard says that being part of a large choir like Nottingham Harmonic Choir is very freeing to do. “You feel like you're a small part in a large machine, but somehow the whole thing is bigger than the sum of its parts. You let go of your own ego into a bigger collective.” He continues, “It's a very liberating experience to be part of something so much bigger than oneself, and taking part in some of these musical works that have really stood the test of time.”
There are plenty of extraordinary pieces that the choir performs. I went to see their rendition of Handel’s Messiah, which was an immense show that brought people to their feet and sent shivers around the room. Richard says, “To be standing up in close proximity to 160 people belting out the Hallelujah chorus is a visceral, physical experience — you feel the vibrations and it’s overpowering.”
At the same time, Richard says it can be exciting to hear a big choir singing really softly together. “It's almost as thrilling as hearing people sing really loudly — everyone just almost whispering, but doing it together, can be very intense,” he says. “We can sit in a rehearsal room and sing through this music, but it only becomes a performance when you've got somebody who's there. It's certainly a ritual that you go through when you perform and it takes you to somewhere very special.”
This is because it’s about sharing emotions. “There's very few other ways of doing that, apart from in live performance. I think we kind of live for that. You get addicted to it in a very healthy way, but it does almost take over your life, certainly as a conductor,” Richard tells me. “You live, breathe, sleep, dream music, and you just have to be fully committed.”
As well as performing famous pieces and classics, they like to explore a more varied repertoire that perhaps some other choirs don't cover. Richard says, “We try and find music that’s going to be really enjoyable for the choir to sing, but also enjoyable for the audience to come and listen to.” They’re also looking at commissioning new work from new composers, so they can perform music that’s never been heard before.
In terms of future Nottingham Harmonic Choir performances, they’re going to be performing Herbert Howells’ Hymnus Paradisi on March 22 at the Albert Hall in Nottingham, along with Elgar’s Cello Concerto. “This is a lovely space — it’s smaller than the Royal Concert Hall, but it’s sizeable while being more intimate.” They’re hoping to do more with the latter in the Nottingham Classics series.
The choir will also be performing at Southwell Minster in May. “We’re doing music from Venice, which was a real hub of music-making in the early 17th century. And Southwell Minster is such a special space — there’s a lovely acoustic and most of the time we’re there the weather's gorgeous, so you get the sun streaming through the west window.”
If you’re reading this and are thinking about attending one of the Nottingham Harmonic Choir’s shows, Richard urges people to give it a try. “Sometimes classical music can feel a little bit inaccessible, but all the people I know who come to a concert for the first time, they’re all blown away.” There’s no dress code and they will always try to make it approachable.
Richard finishes by saying, “What's the worst that can happen? That's two hours of your life you're not going to get back, but… you might actually fall in love with a whole new way of being moved.”
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An excellent article Richard, which really lays plain the great joy of singing in a good choir.