Although the Coronavirus crisis lockdown has made it impossible for Leith Hill and Cambridge Timeline Choirs to meet in person during the Summer Term, we have decided the show must go own! Timeline Choir is going virtual, and you are invited to sing with us from the comfort of your own homes!

What’s more, we decided to try to turn these restrictions on our activities (can’t meet in person, can’t hear each other singing in real time) into an opportunity, by embracing things we can’t do in the real world, but can do in the virtual one. First of all, we’re giving Leith Hill and Cambridge members the chance to join in with each other’s choirs this term (well, why not?!). We’ve also joined forces Jon Hughes (website here), known to TLC members as the composer of Through the Gate, one of our favourite pieces to sing. By collaborating with each other, we can combine our skill-sets to make available a far greater range of online resources over the coming term, as well as new music, fresh ideas, and the chance to connect with like-minded singers from other parts of the UK. It’s a way of turning this separation into a coming together. 🙂

From w/c Monday 20th April to w/c Monday 6th July

With HALF TERM in w/c Monday 25th May.

As well as these weekly sessions, Claire, Stef, and Jon will be sharing warmup videos, rounds, technical tips, fun songs, tutorials for harmony parts, and much more as the term progresses. We will keep you well-stocked with heart-warming harmony during these troubling times!

Leith Hill Timeline Choir Begins the Summer Term with a Zoom session on Tuesday 21st April, 7:30–8:30pm, live from Claire’s living room. Invitations to the Zoom rehearsals arrive by email at the beginning of every week. You can email Claire to sign up or read more here.

Cambridge Timeline Choir begins the Summer Term with a Zoom session on Thursday 23rd April, 7:00–8:00pm, live from Stef’s living room (usually featuring special guest performer, Magnus the piano-playing cat). Invitations to the Zoom rehearsals arrive by email at the beginning of every week. You can email Stef to sign up or read more here.

Timeline Choir is a community singing group with a difference: although it is open to all, with no auditions and no requirement for members to be able to read music, the choir is set apart by its specially-arranged and artistically ambitious repertoire, which celebrates the heritage of the local area, from Anglo-Saxon times to the present day.

Autumn Timeline Choir rehearsals kick off on Tuesday 14th January (Surrey) and Thursday 16th Jan (Cambridge). As always, new members are most welcome to come and join us for the new term. This season, Leith Hill Timeline Choir take the plunge into a wonderful watery programme of sea shanties, sailor songs, and splashing sonic surprises on an aquatic theme, while Cambridge Timeline Choir also dip their toes into the waters of the fens for an East of England summer folk jolly, followed by an autumn concert celebrating the hedonistic joys of wine and romance! Expect bawdy humour from bygone eras, raucous drinking songs, ecstatic musical pageantry, and a few cheeky innuendoes.

Timeline Choir is a community singing group with a difference: although it is open to all, with no auditions and no requirement for members to be able to read music, the choir is set apart by its specially-arranged and artistically ambitious repertoire, which celebrates the heritage of the local area, from Anglo-Saxon times to the present day.

Cambridge Timeline Choir begins with an open session on Thursday 16th January, 7:30pm, at the St. Barnabas Centre on Mill Road. If you love to sing then come along and try out some beautiful old music… arranged in new ways! You can email Stef to sign up (Cambridge only)  or read more here.

Leith Hill Timeline Choir resumes with an open session on Tuesday 14th January, 7:30pm, at Forest Green Village Hall, Forest Green, Surrey. If you love to sing then come along and try out some beautiful old music… arranged in new ways! You can email Claire to sign up or read more here.

Autumn Timeline Choir rehearsals resume on Tuesday 17th September (Surrey) and Thursday 26th September (Cambridge) with a pre-term sing and meet on Saturday 21st September, 3:00-6pm. As always, new members are most welcome to come and join us for the new term. This season sees Leith Hill Timeline Choir continue our righteously harmonious programme ‘Melodic Dissent II’, celebrating music as a powerful weapon in the perennial fight against cruelty and injustice, from as early as the Middle Ages and including folk songs from the North, love songs to trees from Sussex and songs of protest against land enclosure by the poet John Clare.

Timeline Choir is a community singing group with a difference: although it is open to all, with no auditions and no requirement for members to be able to read music, the choir is set apart by its specially-arranged and artistically ambitious repertoire, which celebrates the heritage of the local area, from Anglo-Saxon times to the present day.

Cambridge Timeline Choir begins with an open session on Thursday 26th September, 7:30pm, at the St. Barnabas Centre on Mill Road. If you love to sing then come along and try out some beautiful old music… arranged in new ways! You can email Stef to sign up (Cambridge only)  or read more here.

Leith Hill Timeline Choir resumes with an open session on Tuesday 17th September, 7:30pm, at Forest Green Village Hall, Forest Green, Surrey. If you love to sing then come along and try out some beautiful old music… arranged in new ways! You can email Claire to sign up or read more here.

Spring Timeline Choir rehearsals resume on Tuesday 15th (Surrey) and Thursday 17th (Cambridge) January. As always, new members are most welcome to come and join us for the new term. This season sees kicks off our righteously harmonious programme ‘Melodic Dissent’, celebrating music as a powerful weapon in the perennial fight against cruelty and injustice, from as early as the Middle Ages and including folk songs from the fens, love songs to trees from Sussex and songs of protest against land enclosure by the poet John Clare.

Timeline Choir is a community singing group with a difference: although it is open to all, with no auditions and no requirement for members to be able to read music, the choir is set apart by its specially-arranged and artistically ambitious repertoire, which celebrates the heritage of the local area, from Anglo-Saxon times to the present day.

Cambridge Timeline Choir begins with an open session on Thursday 17th January, 7:30pm, at the St. Barnabas Centre on Mill Road. If you love to sing then come along and try out some beautiful old music… arranged in new ways! You can email Stef to sign up (Cambridge only)  or read more here.

Leith Hill Timeline Choir resumes with an open session on Tuesday 15th January, 7:30pm, at Forest Green Village Hall, Forest Green, Surrey. If you love to sing then come along and try out some beautiful old music… arranged in new ways! You can email Claire to sign up or read more here.

All are welcome to an evening of traditional songs and festive carols from the southern counties, with Leith Hill Timeline Choir, on Saturday 24^th November, 7:30pm, in Rusper Church. Sussex was at the forefront of the English Folk revival of the late 19^th-early 20^th centuries. Alongside their more famous peers Cecil Sharp and Ralph Vaughan Williams, the choir celebrate the names Burstow, Belloc and Broadwood: a shoemaker and bell ringer, an Anglo-French writer, historian and enthusiastic drinker of Sussex beer, and the daughter of a famous family of piano manufacturers, who was, more importantly, one of history’s greatest champions of English traditional music.

Henry Burstow boasted a vast repertoire of 420 songs, some of which he passed onto Broadwood for her first volume English Country Songs, published in 1893, as well as contributing to the folk-song collections of Vaughan Williams. Hilaire Belloc was one of the most prolific writers of early 20^th century England. He spent most of his life in West Sussex, loving the county to the point of idolatry, and writing several works about the area. He loved Sussex songs (particularly the ones about drinking) and wrote about singing as if it were the soul of Sussex. Lucy Broadwood, the unsung heroine of the English folksong, bridged the divide between traditional and art music. Eschewing the conventional harmonies of the Victorian drawing-room ballad, she was instead drawn to the stunning simplicity of the folk song, believing them to possess “perhaps the most beautiful, original and varied cadences to be found in music”. She is buried here in Rusper Church. Interwoven with songs collected, written and sung by these three Sussex greats will be some favourite Christmas carols, lending a seasonal slant to the timeless themes of love, loss and compassion, which have been at the heart of the English folksong since time immemorial. There will be one or two opportunities to sing along!

Tickets cost £12, including a glass of wine, and are available to reserve by calling either Maggie (01293 851906) or Louise (01293 871600)

Leith Hill Timeline Choir is proud to present Southern County Songs in association with Rusper Church’s Belloc, Broadway and Beyond project: www.rusperchurch.org.uk/belloc-broadwood-and-beyond

Autumn Timeline Choir rehearsals resume on Tuesday 18th (Surrey) and Thursday 27th (Cambridge) September. As always, new members are most welcome to come and join us for the new term. This autumn and winter season sees a focus on medieval and renaissance Christmas songs in Cambridge, festive folk songs collected by Lucy Broadwood in Surrey and a look into our 2019 programme ‘Melodic Dissent’, celebrating music as a powerful weapon in the perennial fight against cruelty and injustice, from as early as the Middle Ages and including folk songs from the fens, love songs to trees from Sussex and songs of protest against land enclosure by the poet John Clare.

Timeline Choir is a community singing group with a difference: although it is open to all, with no auditions and no requirement for members to be able to read music, the choir is set apart by its specially-arranged and artistically ambitious repertoire, which celebrates the heritage of the local area, from Anglo-Saxon times to the present day.

Cambridge Timeline Choir begins with an open session on Thursday 27th September, 7:30pm, at the St. Barnabas Centre on Mill Road. If you love to sing then come along and try out some beautiful old music… arranged in new ways! You can email Stef to sign up (Cambridge only)  or read more here.

Leith Hill Timeline Choir resumes with an open session on Tuesday 18th September, 7:30pm, at Forest Green Village Hall, Forest Green, Surrey. If you love to sing then come along and try out some beautiful old music… arranged in new ways! You can email Stef to sign up or read more here.

New Year Timeline Choir rehearsals resume on Tuesday 9th (Surrey) and Thursday 11th (Cambridge) January. As always, new members are most welcome to come and join us for the new term. This spring sees a focus on medieval, renaissance, traditional and even a bit of modern music based on riddles and games as this year we will be exploring the surprising history of the musical puzzle, including songs based on riddles and pieces of music in which the notes themselves are the riddle, including the use of composers names in music (B-A-C-H for example) and musical scores that form special shapes and conceal hidden messages.

Timeline Choir is a community singing group with a difference: although it is open to all, with no auditions and no requirement for members to be able to read music, the choir is set apart by its specially-arranged and artistically ambitious repertoire, which celebrates the heritage of the local area, from Anglo-Saxon times to the present day.

Cambridge Timeline Choir begins with an open session on Thursday 11th January, 7:30pm, at the St. Barnabas Centre on Mill Road. If you love to sing then come along and try out some beautiful old music… arranged in new ways! You can email Meg to sign up (Cambridge only)  or read more here.

Leith Hill Timeline Choir resumes with an open session on Tuesday 9th January, 7:30pm, at The Punchbowl Inn, Okewood Hill, Surrey. If you love to sing then come along and try out some beautiful old music… arranged in new ways! You can email Stef to sign up or read more here.

Beat the Winter Blues by taking up singing this New Year!