Joining a choir is good for you and for the country
Over the days-long festival, Estonians projected joy and unity, not to mention delightful sounds. In the UK, meanwhile, community choirs are ageing and shrinking. That's a shame, because singing with others brings friendships and health benefits alike.
More than 32,000 singers, nearly 11,000 dancers and some 80,000 spectators (in mostly pouring rain) were actively involved in this year's festival in Estonia: roughly 9 per cent of the country's population. And that's despite an application process for performers and ticket limitations for spectators.
Countless others watched the televised performances at home, as they always do, because they were seriously impressive.
• Playboy model turned Tory activist clashed with neighbour in street
The UK, too, has an extraordinary choral culture. Our cathedral choirs are the envy of the world. But community choirs, once mainstays of social engagement, have fallen on harder times. The Bowling Alone phenomenon in the US, described in the book of that name by Robert D Putnam, has hit this most communal of activities, leaving choruses with ageing memberships and struggling to recruit.
Gareth Malone's TV show The Choir got people excited about singing together but the high notes failed to last. Covid delivered a further blow. Not even Wales's famous male choirs have been spared. Meanwhile, loneliness is increasing and so is societal fragmentation. To itself and the world, Britain often projects a culture of bickering.
• Sally Lindsay and the Style Council's Steve White on their blended family
That's a shame, because we've got choirs at every level of ability and joining one brings an instantaneous social network. It also offers the opportunity to meet people from every walk of life and to collaborate with them on a worthy project. Choral singing even brings health benefits: it exercises the brain, helps relieve pain and is thought to aid the immune system.
Imagine what choral singing could do for us individually, for our communities, for the NHS, even for foreign policy. David Lammy, a former boy chorister at Peterborough Cathedral, ought to know. Do a good deed for yourself and the country and join a choir.
Elisabeth Braw is a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Times
15 minutes ago
- Times
Ciao bella — how to dress for a Roman holiday
I know it's the French that we Brits are supposed to get excited about, style-wise, and indeed I did summon up some enthusiasm on these very pages last week. But for me it's all about the Italians. It's always about the Italians. The so-called tomato girl summer that took over social media a couple of years ago — a telling conflation of food and fashion — is still alive and kicking. Although, what with the temperatures and my limited skill set when it comes to dealing with them, mine is thus far proving more of a passata girl summer. Food. Fashion. It's encapsulated by one Miuccia Prada, who, unlike her austerely clad French counterparts, will present herself at the end of a catwalk show in head-to-toe red satin, and who — just in case that isn't enough for you — also owns a cake shop. I am in Rome as I write, for Dolce & Gabbana's Alta Moda show, which I review here. The city is as ridiculously ravishing as ever, but then so are the Romans. Sure, it can be tricky to see them, obscured as they tend to be in the summer months by several dozen burnt and be-bumbagged foreigners. But when you do … • Read more fashion advice and style inspiration from our experts What they channel in their wardrobes might be called joie de vivre if it weren't for the fact that this is the wrong language, so I will refer to it instead as sprezzatura. The Italians love colour and pattern, embracing it in such a way as to look classy rather than as if they are angling for an Instagram showing. JJ Martin, a Milan-based American who runs a kaleidoscopic label called La DoubleJ, goes as far as to call them 'geniuses. They just inherently understand tasteful arrangements of pattern and colour. It's as if they have a special DNA strand that embeds style in the bloodstream.' Here's what makes up the Italian summer uniform. This is a different species to the floral numbers that we tend to turn to. Forget Mapp and Lucia. Think Monica and Sophia. (Bellucci and Loren, on the off-chance that this needs further clarification.) It's not about the village fête. It's about drinks on a terrace somewhere on the Amalfi coast. Eschew ditzy prints. What you want is a ritzy print, one that's bold and very possibly geometric. You might also factor in the idea of an unwaisted style, the better to come over suitably operatic. And also, handily, to enjoy that second helping of pasta. La DoubleJ's signature swing maxi — in a hefty silk twill, with T-shirt sleeves — is the best around in terms of ever-after quality and print options (£770, At a less hair-raising price point there's Boden's Maya maxi (£120, and New Look's fruit-print wide-strap midi (£37.99, No, not to sleep in. The Italians don't wear PJs in bed. (See Bellucci, Monica, above.) They wear them to add a boudoir-adjacent frisson to the state of being fully conscious. Dolce & Gabbana has turned the day-pyjama genre into an art form, although suffice to say that if you have to ask the price you can't afford them. My more real-world favourites are a jazzy print linen pair from Karen Millen, with the option to go for shorts as well as trousers (£111.20 for the shirt, £119.20 for the trousers, £103.20 for the shorts, Bellissima. • The new must-have summer trousers (you probably already own a pair) It's got to the point in Rome this week where I am almost wondering whether there is some kind of municipal diktat prohibiting any sunglasses that couldn't also serve as welding goggles. & Other Stories' cool-girl tortoiseshell aviators would fit right in here (£32, AllSaints' giant squared-off cat's eyes, in black or a paler take on tortoiseshell that it calls (ahem) snow leopard, are more straightforwardly chic (£125, It might be a top, it might be a dress, but it's any self-respecting Italiana's favourite way to sizzle come summer. House of CB's Adabella, in a shade it calls Italian tomato, is a particular cracker (£179, The bandeau style from Nobody's Child — I like the giant polka dot — would also do the job (£99, To quote Loren in Houseboat, 'Bing! Bang! Bong!' The originals are so minimally be-strapped and soled as barely to class as footwear, and would ideally be purchased from the famous Canfora on Capri itself (from £159, However, there are some great iterations on the high street. Free People's are almost as pared-back, in a range of colours (£88, while Nobody's Child has a brown version with a more pavement-ready sole (£115, Italians got on to these for their youth-bestowing magic long before we did. Me+Em's white turn-ups would do nicely (£136.50, reduced from £195, as would Sézane's black and cream check (£125, and — if you are up for more volume — Albaray's leopard culottes (£79, Wait and See Milano — a veritable jewel box of a boutique — has some red and white floral beauts too (€283, reduced from €403, One of the ways in which Italian women signal the arrival of summer — not that here, in my experience, it normally needs much signalling — is by putting away their usual leather handbag, which will be an expensive investment piece, for a more fun wicker or raffia style. I always look for a lined interior, so that it works in the city as well as by the sea. For a neat tote, try Bloom & Bay's Kiara (£44.95, but for one that really thinks like a handbag, complete with leather flap and crossbody strap, try Wicker Wings (£250, I am going to finish on what is perhaps my favourite aspect of Italian style: how they dress up even the simplest ensemble with a knockout piece (or two) of costume jewellery. My favourite hunting grounds at home include the vintage offerings at Felt, Eclectica and Susan Caplan. Mango also knows how to make a dolce vita-appropriate statement, to wit its chunky resin bead necklace in shades of amber and brown (£45.99,
Times
15 minutes ago
- Times
Is James Cleverly plotting a Boris-style path to power?
James Cleverly is understood to be considering running for the London mayoralty James Cleverly is being very coy. The former foreign secretary would not be drawn on his career plans after giving a speech at the IPPR think tank yesterday, but Kemi Badenoch should not worry that yet another person is working on a leadership challenge. Cleverly is flirting with a tilt at the London mayoralty, and TMS understands he is 'actively supporting' polling work that is looking at how the Tories can win borough after borough. This career path was last travelled by Boris Johnson (so it's more of a cycle lane) and it can lead to great things. You just need to know when to stop having your cake and eating it. Ed Miliband declared that his shadow Claire Coutinho had gone into 'hiding' when she missed his climate statement on Monday. However, she was back at yesterday's environment questions and, after parliamentary undersecretary Kerry McCarthy made another point about the no show, they were all left a little red-faced when Coutinho revealed she had been caring for her six month-old baby. Miliband could not continue the session until he'd reaffirmed his feminist credentials by talking about the importance of understanding 'the needs of new parents'. Many people think that prime minister's questions is an awful spectacle, but at least David Cameron stopped it from becoming a rap battle. The former education secretary Michael Gove told The Political Party at the Duchess Theatre that he tried to persuade Cameron to perform raps at the dispatch box. 'I was perhaps unduly and overly influenced by the rap battles in Hamilton,' Gove said. This proved a hard sell to an Old Etonian PM, and Gove's dream was never realised. However, he's still working in music and delighted the crowd with a version of Rasputin with lyrics rewritten for the historian of Russia, Simon Sebag Montefiore. It may be niche, but Boney M now faces a challenge from Govey M. Gove also had advice for those looking for potential defectors as his former Tory colleagues try to stop turncoats from joining Reform. When he was chief whip, he was assured by the MP Mark Reckless that he was not about to defect to Ukip. However, Gove's suspicions were piqued when they went for lunch and Reckless offered to pay for his half. 'I knew he was going to defect,' Gove said. 'He wasn't so dishonourable to have me pay for his steak and chips.' The journalist David Hepworth has made a career out of interviewing rock stars, but some were difficult to get a tune out of. He told The Oldie's literary lunch that interviewing Bob Dylan was a 'herculean' task, recalling a chat with the American on a taciturn day. In Hepworth's words, 'the loudest sound in the room that day was beads of sweat dropping from my forehead'. Eventually, the PR from the record company thought a break might loosen Dylan up. 'How do you think it's going?' she asked. 'I don't know,' Dylan replied. 'He keeps asking me questions.'
Daily Mail
18 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
U2 frontman Bono reveals he lived on leftover airline food and Cadbury's Smash after losing his mother at 14 - and spent his money on records instead
As one of the most successful rockstars in the world, Bono isn't short of a penny or two. But it turns out that life for the U2 frontman, 65, who is said to be worth £500million, wasn't always so easy as he revealed he resorted to eating instant mashed potato and leftover aeroplane food after his mother died. Speaking on the Ruthie's Table 4 podcast, the Irish singer said that as a teenager, his brother Norman, who worked at Dublin Airport, used to bring home surplus airline food for him. He said: 'After my mother died, I would usually return home with a tin of meat, a tin of beans and a packet of Cadbury 's Smash [instant mashed potato]. He continued: 'Thinking back to being a teenager, food was just fuel. 'I would spend my food money on things far more important like Alice Cooper 's Hello Hooray.' Bono's mother, Iris Hewton, died in 1974, aged 48, after an aneurysm when he was just 14-years-old. He added: 'The house was two miles away from the runway where my brother Norman worked for Aer Lingus. He had talked them into allowing him to bring home the surplus food from the airline. This was highly exotic fare. 'Gammon steak and pineapple, an Italian dish called lasagne that we'd never heard of or one where rice was no longer a milk pudding but a savoury experience with peas.' The singer, who grew up in Dublin, said he sadly doesn't remember much about his mother but has vivid memories of the family kitchen. He told River Cafe owner and presenter Ruth Rogers: 'Sadly, I don't have many memories of my mother cooking or otherwise. 'After my mother died, we just didn't speak her name. So it's hard when you do that to recall these things. 'We certainly had kitchen table dramas, three men arguing a lot because the woman of the house was gone. And I remember my relationship with food changed.' When asked about his experience of travelling the world and trying new food after joining U2, Bono said: 'We were blessed with the gift of getting a manager who loved food and wine as much as he did music. 'Record companies would give us per diems, which means they pay for you to stay in a hotel up in Manchester or wherever after we had played. 'But we wouldn't stay in the hotel, and we would drive back and save up our per diems and use them in nice restaurants.' The rocker, whose real name is Paul Hewson, also revealed he avoids drinking before gigs because of how demanding his vocals are. 'I have only ever had alcohol twice before going on stage,' he told the podcast. 'Once because I had a wedding, and another was that my father had to put me to bed in Paris in the late 90s. 'You can't sing well if you drink before. If you sing those big notes, you have to be careful what you eat and drink before.' Bono's rise to fame began in 1976 when he formed a band with schoolmates in Dublin, answering a notice posted by drummer Larry Mullen Jr. The group, eventually named U2, quickly made a name for themselves with their raw sound and electrifying stage presence. Their early albums, especially Boy and War, also gained critical acclaim, with Bono's passionate vocals and stage presence earning him attention. The band's explosive performance at Live Aid in 1985 catapulted them onto the world stage, but it was the release of The Joshua Tree in 1987, with hits like With or Without You, that made them global superstars.
