Masquerade Choir

   Even since the age of 7 I have been lucky enough to sing with international award winning choir Masquerade. I've been singing, or attempting to since, since the age of 3, and before I moved to Manchester the past 4 years saw me singing 4-5 times a week without fail. Having grown up with a pretty musical family on my mum's side, it was inevitable that I was going to inherit the musical genes. After trying, and failing, to play the violin and the saxophone, I stuck to singing and let them become my passion.

   I've also been a member of Belcanto Ladies Choir, another international award winner, various school choirs, and Stagemasque Theatre Company - but Masquerade is the choir that will also have my heart. Not only have I sung with them in the BBC Children's Choir of the Year, which we only went and won, and various competitions at the international choir awards in Llangollen, I was also lucky enough to have the opportunity to go to California with them for 10 days when I was 13. The trip was packed with singing at various theme parks, including Disneyland California and Universal Studies, as well as chance to shop and enjoy the theme parks.
   Growing up with singing being such a massive part of my life, it was a massive shock coming to university and realising that I couldn't really afford to dedicate 5 evenings a week to it any more. Plus I wanted to try new things, such as rowing, and so I decided that singing could take a bit of a back seat after 12 years of hardcore training. I definitely have missed it ridiculous amounts, but it's nice to have given myself a break because amazingly it can be pretty exhausting after a while, especially in the lead up to competitions!    Spending so much time doing something I enjoy over such a long period of time definitely built strong friendships. I have the closest group of friends at choir, my lil Masquerade family, and it was incredibly difficult having to say goodbye to them. My hardest goodbye was definitely Laura, because she's been my main choir girl since day one! We've grown up together and we're ridiculously close and we have millions of memories together, so having to leave her was so difficult! Last year we got into the routine of having monthly Nandos meals as a chance to relax and have a proper catchup after practices seeing as we're not allowed to talk during rehearsals, so it was difficult having to accept that I wouldn't be doing that as often any more as well!
           
   Therefore when I was home over Christmas it was compulsory that I made the effort to see the girls a few times! We realised that it was going to have to be a major catchup, having not seen each other for 4 months, so the first time we decided to have a night in at Katie's with plenty of snacks, pizza and drink. It was such a lush night catching up and having a laugh together, I think it reminded us all how close we are! Despite the fact it had been such a long time since we were all last together it wasn't at all awkward, it was as if we'd never been apart!    I also decided to go and surprise my choir conductor by turning up at a rehearsal last week. All the choir girls knew but we all agreed to keep it secret from Barry so it would be a massive surprise for him, and it's safe to say he absolutely loved it! It was so amazing being able to see all the girls and Barry again, and of course we went for a Nandos afterwards for old times sake! Going to a rehearsal also worked in my favour, as not only have I been asked to go to Disneyland Paris with Masquerade this August, but I've also been asked if I'll sing at Llangollen with Belcanto! It means my summer will be incredibly hectic but I honestly can't wait for all the training to get me back to singing to that professional standard!     So there you go, you now know all about my second family and my lifelong passion for singing!