Musical Director

Application deadline:  Monday, 2 June 2025 

The choir’s mission statement is: “With a truly inclusive ‘no audition, no requirement to read music’ philosophy, our aim is to encourage individual singers of all ages, confidence levels and abilities to experience how our ‘Soulster effect’ can hone their potential and direct it towards making a positive impact in their lives.”  As a community choir, giving back is just as important to us; since 2010, Herts and Soul’s fundraising concerts have raised more than £62,000 for local and national causes. 

For the past 8 years, Herts and Soul Community Choir has been run by two MDs, Peter Clayton and Susie Savage.  With Susie now relocating to Norfolk, we are looking for a new MD to work alongside Peter. The roles of accompanying and directing are currently shared between the MDs and whilst this structure remains our preferred model, we can be flexible depending on the strengths of the successful candidate – we are open to change!  

We are a choir that likes to have fun!  Our rehearsals are energetic, relaxed and upbeat – each one starts with ‘wiggle’ warm-up to get our bodies moving (no pressure!)! Our members (affectionately called ‘Soulsters’) enjoy both the singing and the community spirit that Herts and Soul offers.  The Soulsters care and support one another both at rehearsals and beyond.    

We run a pay-as-you-sing rather than a subscription payment model; Soulsters only pay for the rehearsals they attend. The average size of the choir remains at around 80.  Printable/downloadable sheet music is provided for Soulsters via the choir website and Dropbox.  There is no requirement to read music and there is an equal mix of readers and non-readers within the choir. Recordings are created to help the sections learn their different parts. We are very proud of the musical progress our members have made over the last few years and the choir is now capable of tackling some complex community choir arrangements. The MDs source arrangements and on occasion arrange music themselves.  

The choir currently rehearses on Friday evenings between 19:15 to 21:00, principally during school term time, at The Hertfordshire & Essex High School. Holidays rehearsals are organised as required with at least one MD present.  Rehearsals are paid at £110 each with any additional rehearsal time paid in addition to this. Concerts are paid depending on the type of event. We tend to employ a bass/drummer for our concerts, but we have also worked with guitarists and, on occasion, a full-scale big band! 

The Herts and Soul sound is based on vocal agility in 3- and 4-part harmonies. The choir’s repertoire is generally based around community choir style arrangements including musical theatre, pop, folk, rock, big band style and many others - we do like to be flexible. Performances vary; we tend to perform two big concerts a year and aim also to arrange tea-time concerts or smaller scale community events. 

The choir is run by a committee with a Chairman, Secretary and Treasurer. In addition, we have a wonderful team who help keep the logistics plain sailing at both rehearsals and concerts.  

If you are interested in joining us, we’d love to hear from you! Expressions of interest and CVs should be emailed to our Chairman and Co-Musical Director, Peter Clayton at  hertsandsoul@gmail.com. Selected candidates will be invited to interview and asked to lead a rehearsal in June.