Whatever your level of experience - including absolutely none! - you will be welcome at the new Exeter Science Choir. We rehearse on the university campus (but you DO NOT need to have a connection to the university - this is an open-to-all group) on Thursday evenings from 7-8.30pm.
Some folk are a bit puzzled by the idea of science songs, but they're just tuneful, lyrical, catchy choral songs that happen to have lyrics inspired by science, mostly written and composed by your musical director, David Haines, songwriter-in-residence with the MIT Science Festival in Cambridge, Massachusetts from 2007-2019.
David is a trained musician/composer with a passion for communicating his love of science through the medium of words and music. His styles and musical genres are so varied you'll have trouble believing they're all by the same composer. He's been influenced by jazz, rock, classical, gospel and contemporary classical music, but many of the songs are simply impossible to categorise.
Here are two completely different interpretations of the song Four Billion Years
Four Billion Years sung by a choir of 300 children and 50 adults in 2004
Four Billion Years sung in gospel style in 2010
David's rehearsals are informal, relaxed, and feature lots of silliness and banter. You'll learn a whole range of songs in unison (everyone singing the same tune), or in two, three, four, or even more parts in harmony. He's also written quite a few fun rounds on topics as diverse as Isambard Kingdom Brunel, the planets of the solar system, red supergiants, lost apple varieties, and the water cycle.
Here's the Ozone Song, commissioned for the United Nations Environment Programme
Your first few sessions are completely free, with all materials provided. After that we have a completely flexible payment scheme, depending on ability to pay.
Click here to see Exeter Science Choir's Facebook page
If you have any questions, drop us a line on [email protected] (South Devon Singers is our 'umbrella' organisation). But you can just turn up any Thursday - the sooner the better! Hope to meet you soon!