Our choir is going to be rehearsing somewhere else next season, as our current venue will be for University use only after the summer. I’m not part of the process of choosing a new rehearsal location, but here are some thoughts on what makes a desirable venue for this purpose.
Currently we rehearse in a University lecture theatre. This is the first choir I’ve sung in that does this but it’s quite good for a large choir.
- The acoustic is fine – the DoM or their stand-in can easily be heard right to the back rows where those with coughs and colds sit, and we can hear one another when we sing
- The raked seating means that everyone can see the conductor when they are sitting down, and usually when they are standing up
- The seats are comfortable and you can rest your music on the shelf in front of you, a real advantage when you are working with a big heavy score
- There’s plenty of room, including space to spread sign-up sheets and posters/fliers for distribution, and a table where jam and cloth bags are sold in aid of choir funds
- It’s a sensible temperature except in September (the University is notoriously reluctant to put heating on until its employees start exercising their statutory right to go home)
- It’s reasonably central and accessible by road with plenty of parking nearby (I usually use the spaces in front of the glass workshop where they make chemical equipment for the University), and easily reached on public transport
- There are sufficient toilets and other facilities such as a vending machine
- It’s available every week without fail on our rehearsal night, and we’ve also been able to use it on non-standard nights and Saturday mornings
The drawback is that people have to clamber over one another a bit, because there isn’t space in front of you when you sit down. The benefits to the University are twofold: income and engagement with the wider community. The choir has been rehearsing there for as long as anyone can remember, certainly for at least 30 years.
So we need to find somewhere else which can accommodate us all and offer as many as possible of the same advantages. I’ll miss the lecture theatre with the left-over pieces of physics on the blackboard, mysterious occasional ringing bells, and the signs of the zodiac (rather surprisingly and not quite accurately) rendered in plaster on the ceiling.