Flourish from sofa to stage
Unity Choir Cheering

Welcome to Unity Choir
Sing your heart out, build confidence & make friends in our feel-good sessions!

Unity is a fully inclusive, mixed voice community choir for adults. We love helping adults to find their voice and welcome all voices. No experience is necessary and complete beginners are encouraged – especially those who aren’t sure if they can sing! Our friendly vocal tutors teach us how to sing together in a range of musical styles and we leave each session with a smile.

We have currently have one rehearsal each week on Tuesday evenings in Houghton. Houghton is about half-way between Durham and Sunderland city centre, approximately 7 miles or 15 minutes from both. Unity often perform at Pittington Village Hall which is about 3 miles or 7 minutes from the Durham A1 junction and about 5 miles or 10 minutes from Durham City centre.

If you love singing and socialising, then Unity is the place for you! 

Singing is a fantastic form of self-care; it calms the mind, energises the body and nurtures the soul. Over half of our staff, volunteers and singers live with a physical and/or mental health condition or disability and/or a neurodiverse condition or disability. We welcome all adults into our supportive community. Try out our upbeat sessions to find your voice, make new friends and feel good.

Unity will be taking on new members in January 2024.

To hear about our next tasters join our mailing list here 

Watch our introduction video

What people said:

"This is honestly the most friendly group I've ever been part of, I felt welcome from the moment I stepped through the door. "
Singer at Taster Session

"You can see how much they love what they're doing, their energy is infectious and makes you feel good just watching them together. "
Audience Member

"I can't sing very well but then I joined Unity and realised it really didn't matter whether I was any good anyway."

Unity Member

Tuesdays in Houghton

Sign Up to attend sessions in 2024.
Our Tuesday sessions are lively and energetic and the ideal place to experience singing in a choir for the first time or as a returning singer. Having run for 5 years, our Tuesday group is well established and we have around 40 singers with usually around 25-30 attending each week.

Booking is essential. New singers are welcomed at the start of each term. 

Our Tuesday evening sessions take place at:
Address: The Kepier Hall, Church Street, Houghton-le-Spring
Postcode: DH4 4DN

All our venues are fully accessible. Full details and directions can be found in your booking information and on our venues page, click here.

Unity On Tour
Happy Singers, THe Singing Elf Workshop

We welcome new singers three times each year
At Unity we build on the music we learn each week and therefore only welcome new singers at set times, usually in January, May and September at the start of each term. If you aren't available for these dates, please complete our booking form and we will let you know the next opportunity to try us out.

Course Starting in January 2024.
There are a few opportunities to try us out in January 2024. Singers pay the same, no matter how many sessions they attend. We encourage singers to attend as early as possible during the term as we build on what we learn each week and therefore it is easier when you start singing with us in the first few weeks to make sure you don't miss anything. We also encourage singers to attend as often as they can as Unity is a weekly group. We know that life is busy and singers miss sessions for all sorts of reasons.

What to expect?

Find out what to expect along with lots more details about our sessions, our songs and our ethos on Our Sessions page.

Unity Choir on Tour with The Singing Elf at Local Community Event

Singing

Escapism

Laughter

Friendship

What does it cost?

Unity Choir is run by The Singing Elf Social Enterprise - we are a local, not-for-profit, community organisation. As of September 2022 we moved back to membership fees in order to make our sessions more sustainable and ensure we continue now that some of our funding has ended.

All singers at Unity are eligible for bursaries to provide financial support to anyone who needs help. We know that for many, times are hard and rising costs are putting pressure on us all. We never want finance to be a barrier to taking part which is why we have committed to offering bursaries on a sliding scale to cover all or part of the fees for anyone who needs help. You will receive more information about membership fees and bursaries when you book to try us out. You'll pay between £5 - £25 per month depending on your circumstances.

What have Unity been up to?

Join us on a musical journey to Dreamland with uplifting songs from stage and screen

At Unity we love variety - each term we explore a new theme, style of music or project. Recently, we went to Dreamland, learning a collection of songs from the past 40 years of musical theatre from both stage and screen. We sang well known tracks from shows including Joseph, Sister Act, Mamma Mia and Lion King along with more recent hits including The Greatest Showman, Dear Evan Hansen and La La Land.

Dreamland was Unity's 5th Anniversary Performance incorporating songs from every term since we first formed in 2017 and revisiting some of our favourite pieces along with brand new materials for our 6th year!

Unity love to sing a wide range of music so we've chosen a great mix of styles so that even though we have a theme this term, there's still lots of variety. We also included some 'dream' themed songs with a mix of a cappella, acoustic voices, toe-tapping backing tracks and NEW for this term - some of our songs were accompanied live on piano by a professional accompanist.

We also held our fabulous 'The Holly and the Reindeers' Christmas concert on the 9th December, 2023.

This was an early evening performance for the whole family to enjoy. Our concert featured informal renditions of familiar Christmas favourites, along with toe-tapping new tunes.

The music at the concert was a range of Christmas music, from traditional classics to sing along with, to quirky upbeat new arrangements. With each choir (Unity Choir and Sinergy Choir) performing individually and joining together as a mass choir.

It was such a successful event, and also amazing to know that we were singing from a stage that is also set to be featured on Songs of Praise this Christmas!

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©2019 The Singing Elf

The Singing Elf Ltd, Trading as The Singing Elf Social Enterprise, Company No. 12246373.

Registered Office: The Old Rectory, The Broadway, Houghton-le-Spring, DH4 4BB, United Kingdom