Jesmond Sings is a small community group of singers.

We are associated with Jesmond URC, with members drawn from both within and outside the church. We meet fortnightly on Friday evenings, alternating between the foyer of the Church and Pilgrims’ Court, where we always enjoy having some of the residents join us for singing, and tea and chat afterwards.

We sing a wide range of repertoire, from Renaissance part songs to spirituals, folk songs, and songs from musicals or films, both unison and in parts and accompanied and unaccompanied. We quite often like to try out songs in foreign languages — several lovely French songs (helped by having a native French speaker among), as well as songs in Welsh, Croatian and Xhosa. We are very fortunate to have excellent accompaniment from Ray Taylor (piano) and Andrew Wright (bodhan), and we are extremely grateful to both.

Our rehearsals are very informal, and we sing mainly for ourselves and for Pilgrims’ Court residents rather than performing in public, but we sometimes contribute to community Christmas events, and each New Year we join with West Jesmond School for a wassailing event at Jesmond Community Orchard.

New members are always very welcome (no audition!): please speak to Diana Whaley or Susanna Phillippo, or email our secretary Sarah ([email protected]).