We are a friendly community choir with no joining conditions, no auditions, and no experience required.
Our aim is simply to have fun when we meet to sing together and to learn about music and singing techniques as we go along. We try to do a number of concerts each year, sometimes with other groups and usually raising money for local charities.
The choir was an idea put forward by Trudy Dean and a trial was set up in February 2012 for six weeks to see if people would be interested and if anyone would turn up. The response was amazing with around 70 people at the first rehearsal and the six weeks were enjoyed so much by those taking part that everyone voted to carry on and make the choir a permanent fixture.
We were initially led by Music Director, Jeffrey Vaughan Martin, who took the choir from its inception in 2012 and was a huge part in building the choir into an established and respected musical group. Sadly Jeffrey passed away in April 2016. We are now led by our wonderful Musical Director, Kathryn Ridgeway and under her guidance the choir has gone from strength to strength.
As a community choir we are completely inclusive and consist of a range of people from complete beginners, people who have never sung in a group before to people who have sung all their lives or taken part in other musical ventures. All ages are represented and many of our members enjoy the social aspect of the choir as much as the singing! We have around 120 people signed-up for the choir and on a regular basis there are around 60-100 people at each meeting.
We took part in our first concert on Saturday 24th March 2012 when we sang in St. Mary’s Church in West Malling in support of The Maidstone Singers. Since then we have sung in a huge number of fabulous concerts, sometimes on our own and sometimes with another group.
This has included an annual Christmas concert with local primary schools, open air Summer Festival at Spadeworks in Offham, a thanksgiving service in Rochester Cathedral, a concert with the world famous Stile Antico choir as part of the Music@Malling Music Festival, the Demelza House Christmas Concert in Canterbury Cathedral, singing in the Brandenburg Festival in London, the Royal Albert Hall with the Music Man Project, singing at local remembrance services and concerts with other choirs and bands. To name just a few!
We were very lucky to have a fabulous tour to Beauvais in France just before Covid. We met weekly all through the lockdowns on zoom, continuing to rehearse and also having fun quizzes, themed evenings and even a bakeoff!
Since returning to singing in person we have taken part in a wonderful fundraising concert at Mote Hall, a fabulous concert with Mixed Blessings and an amazing Jubilee street party style concert this June.
Singing at Knole House
We thoroughly enjoy each new challenge and preparing and performing publicly but most importantly we have so much fun singing together!
We currently have a waiting list for new members so please email for more information at westmallingcc@hotmail.co.uk The waiting list is reviewed at regular intervals so please don’t let it put you off!