Members of the With One Voice North East VIC choir gathered in Myrtleford to practise their pitch and welcome any newcomers interested in joining the local choir during Creativity Australia’s inaugural ‘Try a Choir Week’, last Thursday, 21 August.

The Myrtleford choir’s conductor, Joe Davis, said the goal for the evening was to keep the songbook up-beat.

“I prefer to keep working on our repertoire and add new songs each term,” he said.

“This keeps our songbook familiar for everyone.

“To join this choir, nothing is easier: we will accept anyone who wants to sing and socialise with us.

"There's no formal process."

Mr Davis said the Myrtleford choir routinely participates in group projects from Creativity Australia.

“Usually head office sends through details of a video project for us to take part in,” he said.

“All the choirs learn the song; we record our group singing, then send the footage in and they edit it all together.”

Russell and Annalise Peters were two of the first people to join the local Myrtleford group.

“We just love it; we sing and we're all happy little Vegemites,” Mr Peters said.

Run by Creativity Australia, a charity dedicated to building social inclusion and mental wellbeing through music, ‘Try a Choir Week’ encourages people of all ages, backgrounds and abilities to experience the emotional and social benefits of singing together.

Creativity Australia’s national community music coordinator, Sally Rehfisch, said the inaugural ‘Try a Choir Week’ has already garnered a lot of interest.

“We're definitely planning to make it an annual event, although new people are welcome at our choirs all year round,” she said.

The choir gathers on Thursday evenings at 6pm, for an hour-long session in the Hall at St Paul’s church, behind Bastoni’s restaurant in Myrtleford.

For more information, visit: https://www.withonevoice.org.au/