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At this time of the year, many charities are keen to encourage choirs to raise money for a good cause from their Christmas concerts. We can't mention all of them but would like to use one as an example. Ian Duncan is a chorister with East Fife MVC and he sufferts from a lung condition. He has received help and encouragement from the Asthma and Lung UK charity. Use the web links below to read about Ian and about the charity.
Read about Ian Duncan https://www.thecourier.co.uk/fp/lifestyle/health-wellbeing/4811139/singing-copd-ian-treatment-leven/ Asthma and Lung UK website - Singing for Lung Health https://www.asthmaandlung.org.uk/living-with/music-your-lungs
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The NAC is an organisation run by volunteer officers with the aim of promoting choral music across the UK. To do this we provide help and assistance to member choirs, via this website, our periodic magazines News & Views, contact numbers and email addresses. Have a look at the Structure section under the Information button.
Our membership is growing rapidly and currently numbers around 700 choirs all around the UK. If you would like to find a choir local to you, see the Choirs link, and follow either the Choirs map or go to the geographic Group that interests you.
If you are already a member choir you will be able to access information, not available to the general public, in the Members Area. Here you will find copies of News & Views, minutes of meetings, full details of our insurance scheme, Advice Sheets, and many other interesting snippets of information. To get into the Members Area you will need to contact our Webmaster for a username and password.
In addition to the magazine, published three times per year, we hold a three-day conference which is built round our AGM. The conference moves around the country to a different area each year, so that every member choir has the opportunity to send their representative to conference without having to travel too far. The 2023 Conference was held in Taunton and I am pleased to say that the delegate numbers are beginning to increase. As usual it was a great success. I think it was the tonic we all needed after the restraints of the pandemic. We are now looking forward to the 2024 Conference which will be held on board Fred Olsen cruise ship Bolette sailing from Southampton to Liverpool from 17-19 April. The event will begin, as usual, with dinner when we can all meet up again with old friends and make new ones, then we will have all sorts of workshops and seminars. The conference is always great for renewing old and making new friends, talking over problems and sharing best practice, and just plain having fun with like-minded people! The cruise ship will be a new and exciting place to experience and explore. It would be lovely to meet you all, so please do come along and join us.
We are here to help with all aspects of running a choir - we know the problems that go with trying to be a business in the voluntary world - and if we don't know the answers we know people who do. Do have a look in the Members Area if you are a member choir - if you are not yet a member you can explore the advantages of joining the Association under Information-Membership. The officers of the Association have considerable hands-on experience from running their own choirs and they are always available to assist on the phone or by email.
Above all else, enjoy your singing!
Brenda Wilkinson
Honorary Chairman and Membership Officer
