This Leeds community choir found a joyful new way to let anyone sing for charity
Imagine taking centre stage with the microphone - but rather than being backed by a pub karaoke machine, you’ve got the full force of a Leeds community choir behind you.
The Chapel Allerton Baptist Community Choir is hoping to raise the roof and some cash to support the West Yorkshire Destitute Asylum Network.
For a £1 raffle ticket, audience members can enter themselves to win the chance to perform a song from a catalogue of holiday classics including Santa Claus is Coming to Town, Christmas Time (Don’t Let the Bells End), and Last Christmas.
Alongside this, the choir will perform classic carols such as Hark! the Herald Angels Sing, and Silent Night.
Chapel Allerton Baptist Community Choir director Jim Muckelt said: “It will be a little bit like doing karaoke down in your local bar, except for the fact that now you have an entire choir behind you as well as the backing track.
“It’s an opportunity to try something that you wouldn’t get anywhere else.”
The idea is a chance to raise money for the West Yorkshire Destitute Asylum Network, a network of individuals and organisations aiming to improve support for asylum seekers experiencing poverty in West Yorkshire.
The choir said they picked the charity because they see a parallel between the experience of refugees and the original meaning of Christmas.
Choir member Maggie Eckels said: “I think for a lot of people this charity speaks closely to the original Christmas story.
“We don't often think of it this way, but Mary and Joseph were refugees and at the heart of the story, they found shelter because someone was kind enough to let them stay.”
The Chapel Allerton Baptist Community Choir is a pop-up choir which only rehearses from October to December and specialises in Christmas songs and carols.
Maggie herself first joined the choir a year ago as an opportunity to indulge in a love for Christmas.
Meanwhile, fellow choir member Claire Johnson joined when the choir first began four years ago to find new social connections after the pandemic.
Claire said: “I love singing and I just find it a really sociable thing to do.
“What I've really enjoyed is meeting new people, feeling that sense of community and interacting face to face.”
The choireoke gigs are free to attend and will take place in Leeds on Saturday, December 6, at Seven Arts Theatre at 1pm, and on December 20 at Northlight and the Beck & Call pub at 1pm and 5pm respectively.
To support the Chapel Allerton Baptist Community Choir’s fundraiser for the West Yorkshire Destitute Asylum Network, visit their GoFundMe page.