Various Voices Rising – Already a festival atmosphere in Brussels
Three European choirs on stage!
21 June 2024
As part of the “Rendez-vous à Bruxelles” organised by Legato, the host choir of the forthcoming festival Sing Out Brussels! organised “Various Voices Rising”, a show bringing together three LGBTQI+ choirs on stage to launch an appeal for European solidarity. Voces Gaudii (Warsaw, Poland), DynamiQ Voices (Utrecht, Netherlands) and of course Sing Out Brussels! performed a selection of their repertoire to a packed house. The event was promoted in the media. See this television report.
There was already a festival atmosphere in Brussels. Nearly 150 singers were present, not counting the participants in the “Rendez-vous”. The weekend kicked off on Friday with a rehearsal that provided an opportunity to get to know each other by sharing the stage for Brave, our joint song. On Saturday morning, many of the singers took part in the L-Tour, a guided LGBTQI+ tour of Brussels. In the afternoon, games were organised to help the singers get to know each other and encourage discussion.
The Saturday evening concert was preceded by a collective vocal warm-up, led successively by each choir conductor. It was a moment of great emotion and sharing that brought our voices together in moments of great intensity. The show then got under way in front of an enthusiastic audience, who greatly appreciated the diversity of the three choirs, in terms of intention, style and repertoire.
After this triumph, the evening continued in the centre of Brussels, in a bar privatised for the occasion, where the singers and their friends partied until the early hours. The weekend ended with a delicious brunch on Sunday. A singing brunch, of course. There were lots of laughs and a few tears too. But we already know that we’ll be seeing each other again in Brussels in two years’ time. “Various Voices Rising’ wasn’t Various Voices yet, but it already had the atmosphere and the spirit!
