Singing Days
Our singing days are very popular with members and visitors alike, and not only because of the excellent cakes.
Led by our own Musical Director Leslie Olive or by a visiting well-known musician, we hold one or two a year.
Previous Singing Days
Contemporary Composers - March 2017
Our next singing day is scheduled for Saturday February 9th 2019.
Our last Singing Day was on Saturday 22nd September, 2018, singing Handel's Messiah and raising £500 for Coram, the children's charity whose fore-runner Handel supported. Thanks to everyone who made this such a special occasion, and particularly to Coram, Cullenders Delicatessen, La Barbe Restaurant, Priory Garden Centre, Art of Living, and Gedo Clothing, who all donated generous raffle prizes.
Captain Thomas Coram was a philanthropist who created the London Foundling Hospital in Lamb's Conduit Fields, Bloomsbury, to look after abandoned children. It is said to be the world's first incorporated charity.
In 1749 Handel offered to stage a concert to pay for the Chapel at the Foundling Hospital. He’d heard about Thomas Coram’s efforts to provide a home for vulnerable, abandoned children and wanted to help.
The concert took place on 27 May 1749 and included an anthem specially written by Handel called Blessed are they that considereth the poor, known today as the Foundling Hospital Anthem. Ladies were instructed not to wear hooped skirts, and men told not to bring their swords, to make more room for the large number of people expected.
Sure enough, the event was a hit, and the next year Handel became a Governor of the Hospital, donating an organ to the chapel and conducting a performance of The Messiah. Tickets sold out and another concert was arranged two weeks later.
Handel continued to stage Messiah every year until his death in 1759. He raised almost £7,000 in all – over £1million in today’s money – a vital source of income that meant the Hospital could continue its vital work.