Music education for under-18s is a much-discussed issue. However our members – lifelong learners themselves – know the...
Many choral societies have told us that they have challenges with attracting new members. While this is definitely not the case for all choral societies, last year Making Music undertook some research to identify what might be the barriers to new members joining choral societies.
We contacted a range of people from vocal, promoter, instrumental and no music group backgrounds about what they thought, and recevied a huge and encouraging response. Not wanting to audition topped the reasons for not joining, followed by the perception of choral societies to be 'stuffy,' and not having enough time to attend rehearsals regularly. In the meantime, not having anything in common with or being of a similar age to other people in the group is less of a barrier than you might think, plus other interesting responses that give plenty to think about.
We have put the details of these findings together in a report and hope that it will give you somewhere to start when thinking about how you could make your choral society more inclusive.
We hope you find this Making Music resource useful. If you have any comments or suggestions about the guidance please contact us. Whilst every effort is made to ensure that the content of this guidance is accurate and up to date, Making Music do not warrant, nor accept any liability or responsibility for the completeness or accuracy of the content, or for any loss which may arise from reliance on the information contained in it.
