Chantage at 252024 marks 25 years of Chantage!
Performance highlights2006: winners of BBC Radio 3 Choir of the Year
2009: Recorded live with Elbow at Abbey Road Studios 2011: Performed with the Swingle Singers 2012: Performed with Paco Pena at the Royal Festival Hall 2014: Performed at the BBC Proms 2015: Winners of the Grand Prix at the Malta International Choir Festival. 2018: Host choir for the first London International Choral Conducting Competition Choir memories"2006, the adult finals of Choir of the Year. The acoustic in the Millennium Centre was incredibly dry. We’d rehearsed in dry acoustics, but nothing like this. One of the works we were singing was "A boy and a girl", by Eric Whitaker. It was a glorious piece, with lingering phrases and plenty of silences - neither of which would work in the bone dry hall.
I remember Jim getting us to change the consonants, teaching us all to sing ‘wet’ consonants, a longer S, a more breathy T, and so on. The effect was remarkable. It gave the impression we were singing in a church, as if the acoustic had changed completely. The audience was spellbound. It’s something that has never left me. Of course, winning the competition helped!" - James Simpson (Chantage alumni) 
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"I can probably make a claim to having clocked up the highest number of miles travelling to and from Chantage over the last 22 years. There are some times when I’ll be getting on the train up to London at the end of a work day, and I’ll be asking myself if it’s actually worth it. But then I’ll get to the rehearsal, and after a few minutes of singing with some wonderful people, I’ll feel my mood lift completely, and I’ll be more upbeat for the rest of the week. It’s got me through some fairly dark times in my life, and I’ll always be grateful for that."
- Toby Armstrong (current Chantage singer) |
"I love the fact that you might not have sung with Chantage for about five years or two kids or a job move later, but nobody seems to notice because it’s about the music, and is as if you never left. New members just slot in and are welcomed with open arms. It’s a melting pot of very interesting people, who manage to channel themselves into a stunningly blended sound soup. With some silly banter!
Chantage and Wednesday night at St Dunstan's has been the only true constant in the last 25 years. Whether I have been a member or not, it’s a comfort to know it is there. Big memories are joining in 2006, and going from not singing much after leaving university, to joining Chantage and winning choir of the year! I burst into tears when we won. Chantage singing at my wedding, and some members singing at my mother’s funeral, elevated the proceedings beyond words. Performing with The Swingles when I was 8 months pregnant was another highlight and singing with Eric Whitacre at the ABCD was a bucket list goal too. Chantage is a family." - Lucilla Fermi (current Chantage singer) |