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Well - what a summer afternoon it was. A beautiful venue, a hall full of guests and two choirs singing their hearts out.

Braintree Voices were delighted to be hosting a concert at the beautiful barn, thanks to some negotiating by one of our choir members. Then another member had the idea of - shall we add cheese? - and there it was - An Afternoon Of Song with a Ploughman's Platter.

Both choirs sang a selection of songs so there was something for everyone. They also performed four joint numbers.

The audience were encouraged to join in with 'If I Were A Rich Man', "Do Re Mi' and the Abba medley. However, no encouragement was needed for some!

Thanks must go to all the ladies who worked hard behind the scenes, the gentlemen for errecting the wonderful staging for us to use and then everybody for helping to clear the barn at the end of the evening.

A special thanks must go to Claire for accompanying both choirs so wonderfully.

Braintree Voices will next be performing at the Great Notley Fete, so do come and say hello.

We were delighted to be asked by the organiser of the Dementia Drop-In Group to provide some entertainment for their cream tea event. This event was put on to celebrate the move to Braintree Baptist Church from their old venue.

The ladies sang beautifully today and the songs were well received. Many of the attendees could be seen tapping their feet or joining in with the words. We were delighted to welcome one attendee to come and sing with us this morning.

The organisers were delighted at the attendance of the group and the Chairman of Braintree District, Councillor Richard van Dulken, was in attendance as well.

We were delighted to have been asked by Larchwood Care Home to perform to the residents.

It was a really hot day but we enjoyed sharing our songs with the residents. There was lots of toe tapping going on with the residents who enjoyed the singing.

We hope to return to share some Christmas songs.

What an evening we had last night at the 2^nd Great Waltham Choir Festival. We were joined in the festival by 8 other choirs, including a primary school choir and 3 choirs from The Sandon School.

One of the highlights was having choirs join together: Chelmsford Male Voice Choir joined forces with Braintree Male Voice Choir to sing American Trilogy, Braintree Voices joined with Chelmsford Male Voice Choir to sing World in Union and Great Waltham Village Choir were also joined by Chelmsford Male Voice Choir for their rendition of A Clare Benediction.

Praise must go to the school children though. The primary school ‘Small But Mighty’ choir sang a fabulous version of Power in Me and also sang a Swahili number, Amani Utupe Na Ustawi (Grant us peace, Give us Courage), with actions and it was great to see the audience join in with the actions.

The choirs from Sandon School also blew the audience away.  The Year 7 Choir sang ‘Happy’ by Pharrell Williams, the Young Singing Leaders Elite choir sang Everywhere by Fleetwood Mac and Sandon Voices sang ‘Shackles (Praise You)’ by Mary Mary. All the children sang confidently and with gusto. For some of Sandon Voices, it was their last performance as they will be leaving the school this year and moving onto pastures new.

 A huge thanks to the staff of both schools for supporting the children so well.

The evening’s finale was all the choirs coming together to sing ‘I’d Like To Teach The World To Sing’ which went down extremely well.

Thanks must also go to Clare Howell, who not only accompanied Chelmsford Male Voice Choir, but accompanied the rest of the adult choirs so beautifully.

Thank you to the church of St. Mary and St. Lawrence for allowing the choirs to use the fabulous venue. Thanks also go to the FOH and Bar Staff team and Malcolm – chair of Great Waltham Village Choir for having the idea in the first place, and for his team who worked behind the scenes.

You can see Braintree Male Voice perform next on 28^th June at the Public Hall in Witham where they are part of a Gala Charity Concert. Tickets can be purchased HERE

Braintree Voices and Chelmsford Male Voice Choir are joining forces again on 4^th July at ‘Songs on a Summer Afternoon’ – their joint concert in Pleshey. Tickets can be purchased HERE

Great Waltham Village Choir can be heard next at their Summer Soiree on 9^th July.

We hope that you are able to join one, or more of these events.

Here are some of us getting ready to sing in Braintree Village today in aid of Dementia Action Week.

We were delighted to have been asked to support Home Instead as they shared information with shoppers.

This is from Home Instead:
 
Today, we spent the day at Braintree Village and were delighted to be joined by Braintree Voices, whose wonderful singing brought so much warmth and joy to the event.
 
 Singing can be incredibly beneficial for people living with dementia. Music has the power to trigger memories, improve mood, reduce anxiety, encourage social connection, and help people express themselves, even when communication may become more difficult. It can create moments of comfort, familiarity, and happiness for both individuals living with dementia and their loved ones.

Not only does Sarah enjoy singing with Braintree Voices, she also likes performing.

A group of 21 choir members and friends of Braintree Voices went to support Sarah as she performed in Witham Amateur Operatic Society's (WAOS) production of Jesus Christ Superstar.

We are very proud of Sarah.

Braintree Voices have had a very busy Christmas this year.

It started off at the end of November when they performed at Braintree and Bocking Public Gardens and then George Yard.

In December the events included singing at Audley End Christmas Market and Blakes End Christmas Market.  

Braintree Voices joined members of Braintree Male Voice Choir to sing at Chelmsford City Racecourse and their season concluded with a performance at Digby Court.

The highlight of December was performing their very first Christmas Concert. The choir wish to thank Rev Rod Reid for allowing them to use St. Mary's Church as their venue. The audience was very appreciative and joined in with enthusiasm. One of the most memorable parts was the renditiion of Deck The Nutcracker Hall with added ballet dancing!!

The photo is of some of the choir as they celebrated the end of rehearsals in 2025 when they performed for staff of The Institute - their rehearsal space.

Braintree Voices wish all their friends and supporters a lovely Christmas and look forward to entertaining in 2026.

We started our Christmas Events at Braintree and Bocking Public Gardens.

We sang a range of numbers, including some 'audience participation' songs. We also raised some money for the charity MIND as part of their Music in MIND campaign, so thank you to all those who donated.

A huge thank you to Phil for supplying us with sound - it really added to our performance.

We had a great morning at Apple Day at Cressing Temple. We were placed just by the entrance and many people stopped to listen to us before they walked around the festival.

Although only about half the choir were able to make it, the sound was wonderful and we had an appreciative audience.

We had a wonderful concert this morning at St. Mary's Church, Bocking, to celebrate our first birthday. 

We were delighted to be joined by so many people who fully appreciated our concert. We then joined other at St. Mary's Coffee Morning, which was a delight.

Comments from the audience:

'Our hearts are well and truly full! We loved seeing everybody today.'

'What a great morning! Huge thanks to all involved.'

'Wonderful choir and get together this morning at church.'

'The ladies sung beautifully, had a lovely time.'

'A lovely choice of songs.'

'It was so lovely, thank you.'

'A very enjoyable morning listening to the choir in St. Mary's church then cuppa and cake in the church hall. Thank you to all.'

'Wasn't it wonderful'

'Braintree Voices - fantastic start to the morning from the women of Braintree Voices! A brilliant celebration of your first year together, we have thoroughly enjoyed your concert in the church this morning! Thank you!'

What a fabulous afternoon concert we had today, 21st June 2025. Attached is a photo of us in rehearsal mode. We had a lovely audience who appreciated the range of songs.

Well done to Braintree Male Voice Choir, Chelmsford Male Voice Choir, Braintree Voices and Great Waltham Village Choir .

A huge thank you to Claire Howell and Mark Edwards for providing the musical accompaniment.

Thank you as well to Brenden and Kate for organising and running front of house and refreshments and to BMVC for organising the whole event.

We were delighted to be asked to join Aled Jones when he performed at The Institute, Braintree on 13th June 2025.

The choir entertained the audience prior to the concert and then joined Aled on stage to sing How Great Thou Art.