On Wednesday 9 September 2026 we will start rehearsing for our December 2026 concert.

We will be rehearsing Haydn’s The Creation

Rehearsals will be in the Music Lecture Theatre at UCS. We are planning a twelve-week term concluding with a concert in the Great Hall at UCS on Saturday 12 December. There is no need to register in advance- simply come along to our first rehearsal, where your
attendance will be registered. If you are on our mailing list, you should already have received an email about the arrangements for next term.

Concert and tickets

The concert is on Saturday, 12th December in The Great Hall, University College School, Frognal, Hampstead NW3 6XH.

Rehearsal Schedule

A rehearsal schedule showing what we will be learning in future weeks can be found here.

Don’t worry if you miss the occasional rehearsal or join the term a bit late – you should use the learning resources identified on this page to catch up.

Scores

We are singing Haydn’s The Creation in English using the Peters edition EP8998 (and not EP7333). The score is available online (e.g. Amazon, Prestomusic) and may also be available from local music retailers. Some copies of the music will be available for the first two rehearsals of term, which are taster sessions.

Subscriptions

The subscription instalment for this term is £105, the same as last year.  The subscription will become due on 16th September, immediately after the second rehearsal of term. The first two rehearsals will be taster sessions to allow anyone who wishes to try out choral singing to come along and try it.

Details of how choir membership works can be found on our website here. In summary, the subscription is set for the year at £270 but is charged on a termly basis based on participation. Subscription includes membership of Hampstead Chorus which entitles members to attend and vote at general meetings of Hampstead Chorus, giving them a say in its governance.

Warm-up exercises

All our rehearsals start with warm-up vocal exercises.  Simon has prepared videos to help those who are less familiar with the exercises:

Simon’s regular warm up exercises

If you want to keep your voice going between rehearsals, these are the tools to use.

Learning aids

Many of the learning sites provide aids to help you learn your part.  We find the following to be particularly useful:

  • Cyberbass – You can listen to individual voice parts or all voice parts, you can select a short passage to listen to over and over again, or you can speed up and slow down recordings.  This is a very flexible tool, but you cannot download the recordings.
  • John F’s Rehearsal Files – John Fletcher has an extraordinary range of music on his site, with individual files for each voice part or for all parts together. You need to set up a membership – this is free for out of copyright music.  There is a paid for option if you want to access copyrighted music – there are various options, but the individual rate for one year is £10.  The advantage of John Fletcher’s site is that you can download the recordings to use offline.
  • Saffron Choral Prompt – you can order CDs at a modest price from saffronchoralprompt.co.uk 01799 586269.  You tell them the name of our choir (for a discount); which piece of music and name of publisher; your voice part.  You will receive a useful (though not beautiful) recording of a voice singing your exact line with a piano accompaniment playing the other parts.  This is clearly most useful for large scale works.
  • Some choir members find Choralia to be a useful source of learning aids.

In-person and online rehearsals

Our rehearsals take in the Music Lecture Room (MLT) and M7 and we also offer an online option for those who cannot attend in person

How does Hampstead Chorus Online work?

There will be plenty of help on hand but most members have found it quite straightforward:

  • download ‘Zoom’ to your computer in advance of the session – it’s free video conferencing software
  • at the beginning of term you will be sent a link via email from Hampstead Chorus, which you use to join the Zoom session from 7.15pm for a 7.30pm start. The link will be the same for the whole term. Please click on the link at the beginning of the session and please remember to place yourself on mute.
  • a point worth emphasising is that, when you sing in Zoom sessions the only person who can hear you is yourself.
  • If there are two of you in the same location, unless you are the same voice part, you may wish to sign in from two devices so that you are put in the right breakout room.  If you are sitting near each other, please ensure both devices are kept on mute otherwise there will be a horrible feedback noise.

Further information on setting up Zoom and what to expect can be found here.