Sing with us

Our Sing with Us flyer

Our singers have mostly come from our connections to community choirs, where principles of universal singing ability and the right to participate are strongly upheld. For this specialist kind of singing, we do require singers to think carefully about their personal suitability for this work. In particular, singers will:

  • have the ability to sing in tune
  • preferably have some experience singing in harmony
  • preferably have some experience singing in a group or choir 
  • be prepared to demonstrate their singing qualities.

We practice once a week in Thorndon on Tuesday morning, 10 am to 12 noon. We chose a daytime practice as this is the time when we are out singing to patients too. We also hold weekend workshops to accommodate singers who can rehearse and sing in the weekends.

Groups of us sing in rest homes, hospices and hospitals during the day about once a week. We expect our singers to be available for 2-3 of these sings per month.

Requested sings out in the community can be organised at short notice, and we might need to contact you quickly to get a team together.

If you would like to sing with us, please email us at whakaahuru@gmail.com  or phone 022 355 6954. We’ll then introduce you to the process we’ve developed for bringing new singers into Whakaahuru. Once you’ve learned more about how we operate, and whether this feels right for you, we’ll ask you to do a simple sing with our Choir Director

A group preparing for a sing

I appreciate the chance to bring peace and joy to people.

With Whakaahuru I’ve learnt a whole repertoire of beautiful, gentle songs that are different from the songs I sing in other choirs.

I’ve learnt that this type of singing is a privilege. It’s a truly special experience for us to be there with the gift of song at the end of someone’s journey. We’re giving our music to soothe and ease the way for the person dying, and they and their family are allowing us to be there, opening their hearts and ears.

Every sing can bring up emotions, but I still want to do this – I want to sing for others at their bedside, providing comfort and support.