Our Mission
Hackney Choral shares the richness of the English choral tradition with children and young people, no matter who they are or what their background.
Through striving for excellence, team spirit, fun, and amazing performance opportunities, we want to help young people grow and be the best they can be.
Music is transformative — it has the potential to change our lives for the better. It opens up new ways of seeing the world, ourselves, and others.
By providing choirs and singing activities both in and out of school, we hope to give young people a stepping stone which sets them on the course to success.
What do we believe?
We believe that every young person in Hackney should have access to the world’s best music — that’s why we’re committed to providing performance opportunities at the highest level.
Senior Choir at the Hackney Empire with ETO 2020
Being part of Hackney Choral means thriving among like-minded people who want to excel in what they do. We are anything but an after-school club, and we discourage prospective families or young people from thinking of us as such.
What we are is committed to the highest quality musical education, through rigorous musical training and performance opportunities. We are a team with compassion at its core, and our teaching method reflects this. We get to know all our singers, and look for progression opportunities for them as individuals.
We place a great emphasis on learning to read musical notation, as well as to sing music from the great classical tradition and beyond. We feel we’re uniquely placed in the borough to deliver this, and have ambitions to be a centre of excellence for choral singing, teaching, and pastoral music-making.
We are also actively involved with Community Organising through Citizens UK, and are keen to instil in our young people a heart and head for social justice. In recent years, our young people have also raised thousands of pounds for causes about which they care, including WaterAid and local organisations working with those at the margins.
We know that being part of a team like a choir gives young people ownership and belonging, and can help them make the right choices in their lives. We are committed to supporting young people who have a rough time, and hope to provide space where they can be themselves, make friends, and make the world a better place.