Your Choir Culture Could Be a Barrier (Yes, Yours!)
We need to talk about attitudes and outlooks…
For a while, the Male Choirs UK Facebook page offered an unusual insight into the culture of our sector. Things seem to have calmed down now, but during the first year of its’ existence barely a week went by without something offensive being popping up. Sexist, homophobic, racist, and misogynistic material posted included a female MVC conductor being asked why she had joined the group since it was “for male choirs” and people with “foreign sounding names” being denied membership. During the WRU “Delilah” debate, one member posted “Sing it, ignore the …s. Public are getting sick of treating the minority with kid gloves.”
Not very nice and potentially not very legal.
One of my earliest encounters with these kind of attitudes in the male/lower voice choir sector came on Millennium Eve at the Millennium Dome. I was a member of the RSCM youth choir, joining several others — including the London Gay Men’s Chorus and the London Welsh MVC — to form a massed choir. I struck up a conversation with some of the London Welsh. As a teenager I loved singing with Truro MVC, so I’d hoped we’d find common ground. That hope evaporated when one of them said, “We’re with the choir for proper men.” Thankfully, I cannot imagine Edward-Rhys Harry tolerating such views at LWMVC today.
I’m generally a tolerant person, but I cannot abide attitudes like this. Call me “woke” if you like: I do like to keep up with social and political issues. Politically I consider myself a centrist, though in the context of much of our sector that makes me look hard left. But my concerns about outdated attitudes in male and lower-voice choirs aren’t about ideology. They’re practical. Fundamentally, these attitudes kill recruitment.
Last year I visited a male choir rehearsal. The welcome at the choirs’ handsome ‘headquarters’ was warm: a good cup of tea, and a rousing first half of music: so far so good! But after the break, on my way to the facilities, I was greeted by a seedy collection of faded Razzle pages and “saucy” seaside postcards framed above the urinals. For me it was less Cwm Rhondda and more Softly As I Leave You. Was this the sign of an inclusive, respectful environment? Absolutely not. It spoke less of proud blazers and more of dirty raincoats.
Younger singers — let’s say under 50(!), and more diverse singers expect inclusive, respectful environments. If your choir tolerates casual prejudice, even as “banter,” you’re shutting the door on entire generations. If your choir has members whose outlook is reminiscent of the smutty, racist, misogynistic uncle everyone dreaded sitting next to at family gatherings, then it’s no surprise you may struggle to grow and diversify your membership.
It takes courage to challenge toxic attitudes. Yet there are positive examples. One choir I know recently brought in a diversity consultant to run a workshop on inclusive language. It wasn’t comfortable. A few members left. But others — younger ones — joined.
We often say we want to recruit younger men. But we also need to mean it. That begins by cleaning our own house.
