Country representing: England
Number of performers in the whole group: 16 – 20
Participation: Non-Competitive
Biography:
Cheshire Fire Choir was formed in 2013 as part of Gareth Malone’s Sing While you work TV programme. Since then, the choir has continued to rehearse and perform as a workplace choir even moving online and rehearsing virtually during COVID. The members are drawn from across the Service with the choir made up of firefighters, fire authority, support staff, youth workers and volunteers.
Group Activities
We have performed in some fantastic venues, and at some very moving and poignant occasions, including as part of a massed choir at Carnegie Hall in New York, reacquainting ourselves with Paul Mealor, whose piece Jubilate Deo was being debuted. Paul had been one of the judges on the TV programme.
We were also able to perform “The Rising” which is a song we sing in tribute to fallen firefighters (written by Bruce Springsteen about 9/11) at Ground Zero Plaza and also to firefighters who lost colleagues in Engine Company 10 (FDNY Ten House).
In 2017, the Cheshire Fire Choir performed at The Spirit of Fire Awards in London, Bollington Festival, Bollington in Cheshire, The LGA Fire Conference, Millennium Stadium in Cardiff, Love Music Trust, Bridgewater Hall in Manchester and at WWI Commemoration event at Tatton Park in Cheshire.
We have also had the privilege to perform at the Last post ceremony at the Menin Gate, as well as numerous Fire Service and community memorial and celebratory services across the UK including a non-competitive appearance in the 2017 Eisteddfod.
Conductor
Our conductor, Benjamin Hamilton, is a nationally recognised choral and operatic conductor. His work is united by a singular aim: to give voice—helping choirs express themselves, empowering opera professionals to dazzle audiences, and reviving forgotten composers by bringing their music to life once more.
Benjamin regularly directs choirs at all levels. Alongside leading our choir, his work with Ex Urbe Chamber Choir includes a commission for BBC Radio 3 spotlighting the composer Clara Schumann. He also runs the Hampton Singers Choral Society and Inspire Choir (winners of the Audience Prize at the 2024 Midlands Choir of the Year), conducts B: Music Workplace Voices, and has led Warwickshire Choristers for the past decade, overseeing in-school singing programs that reach thousands of children annually.
Following the BBC 2 second series of The Choir: Sing While You Work, in which they reached the final, their choir has stayed together under the guidance of Musical Director Ruairi Edwards and Accompanist Wendy Dolby.
YouTube: https://youtu.be/aOOuVU5R7Dg
