Voices of Darlington

⚡🎸 VOICES WILL ROCK YOU! 🎸⚡

We are VERY excited about this one…

This autumn, lots of familiar faces from the Voices family, past and present, will be swapping our rehearsal rooms for the stage at Darlington Hippodrome in DarlingtonOS huge production of WE WILL ROCK YOU! 🤘

We have a particularly exciting little Voices line-up in Team Lightning…

⚡ Claire – Oz
⚡ Harrison – Galileo
⚡ Jack – Bohemian
⚡ Ava – Ga Ga Girl

…plus more Voices alumni appearing across the production too! ❤️

And the Voices connection doesn’t stop on stage. Claire’s partner Andy will be working behind the scenes on the digital on-stage effects for the show!

We LOVE seeing our students, teachers and alumni continuing to perform, create and get involved in productions across our local community. There are going to be a LOT of familiar faces to cheer for in this one!

🎭 Team Lightning performances:
⚡ Thursday 29 October
⚡ Saturday 31 October – MATINEE
⚡ Tuesday 3 November
⚡ Thursday 5 November
⚡ Saturday 7 November

And speaking of cheering… 👀

We’re planning a VOICES GROUP TRIP! 🎟️🎉

We’re hoping to get a big gang of our Voices family together for the Saturday 31 October matinee, so we can take over a little corner of the Hippodrome and cheer everyone on!

More information about the group trip will be coming very soon.

We genuinely can’t wait for this one. Time to ROCK! 🤘⚡🎸

❤️ We have a little favour to ask…

If Voices of Darlington has ever made a positive difference to you or your family, we’d be so grateful if you would consider nominating us for the Stronger Communities Awards.

We’ve always believed that we are about so much more than singing. It’s about confidence, friendships, belonging and having somewhere to be yourself. Seeing the impact our community has on people’s lives is the reason we do what we do every single week.

If you feel we’ve made a difference, no matter how big or small, we’d love your support.🥹

Nominations close on Sep 11th and here’s the link;

👉 https://www.darlington.gov.uk/communities/stronger-communities-awards/stronger-communities-awards-2026/

The details you’ll need are:

Suggested Categories: ‘Contribution to the Arts’ & ‘Contribution to the Community’

Organisation Name: Voices of Darlington, The Voices Group
Telephone: 07480 473689
Email: [email protected]
Address: The Voices Group, Unit 6, 80 East Mount Road, Darlington DL1 1LA

Thank you for being part of our amazing community and for supporting us. It really does mean so much ❤️

📸 scott akoz photo video media Darlington Borough Council

🌈 Proud for so many reasons. 🎶

What an afternoon performing on the main stage at Pride with OS!

We had glorious sunshine, a brilliant crowd and a set packed with Priscilla Queen of the Desert, I Will Survive, Take Me or Leave Me and, of course, a big Mamma Mia medley. ☀️🎤

One of my favourite parts, though, was looking around the stage and realising I was performing alongside so many people whose musical journeys I’ve been lucky enough to be part of.

❤️ Ava, one of my long-term students and now one of our wonderful teachers
🎤 Harrison and Jack, my students and Hazel one of our choir members, plus some Voices of Darlington Alumni

Those little full-circle moments are pretty special. 🥹

Wednesday nights are normally spent teaching my own students, so I managed approximately ONE rehearsal 😂 Huge thanks to everyone at Darlington OS for welcoming me in and letting me join the fun!

Thank you to Sasha and Jo for inviting me, Chris at Audio for looking after the sound, Productions for capturing it all, and everyone involved in putting on such a huge event for Darlington.

And finally, that crowd! You sang, danced and cheered along with us from beginning to end. You were FABULOUS. ❤️

What’s your most controversial music opinion?

A song everyone loves that you can’t stand? An artist you just don’t get? A cover that’s better than the original? 😬

We want to hear them and this is (mostly) a safe space!

This is what happens when you give a group of kids three days to become pop stars!

We had such a brilliant time delivering our Pop Star Academy as part of the Holiday Access Fund programme, in collaboration with Darlington Borough Council.

We packed so much into the three days. Singing, vocal technique, movement, performing, lots of crafts and even writing and recording our very own song!

One of our favourite things was seeing everyone bring their own ideas and creativity, growing in confidence and the support they gave each other. The kids are truly very special and we miss them already! ❤️

We absolutely LOVE getting out into the community and delivering workshops like this. If you’d like us to create and deliver a workshop for your group, we’d love to chat about what we could do for you!

🌈💙 What a colourful afternoon at The Hive!

With Pride celebrations taking place this weekend, we spent our session celebrating something that’s always at the heart of The Hive… being yourself 😍🌈

We had music, laughter, new song challenges, a Pride-themed Finish the Lyrics quiz, some wonderfully dramatic performances from Claire and Jess, games of Hook a Duck, favourite songs, glow sticks, rainbow bunting, pom poms, tinsel wigs and plenty of prizes! 🌈✨

For us, Pride is about celebrating individuality, kindness, friendship and creating a space where everyone feels welcome, valued and free to be themselves.

Thank you to everyone who threw themselves into the afternoon with such enthusiasm. We had an amazing time, and the room was full of smiles from beginning to end. ❤️

Happy Pride weekend! 🌈

☀️ People often ask us if we get the summer off…

The answer? Not quite! ❤️

While our regular choirs are enjoying a well-deserved break, the work behind the scenes never really stops.

Over the last few weeks we’ve been…

🎨 Building backdrops in the garden as the sun went down.

🎓 Travelling to Edinburgh for the AOTOS Summer Conference, bringing back new ideas and inspiration (and with an escape room or two!)

🎤 Delivering our Pop Star Academy through Darlington Borough Council’s Move More Holiday Activities and HAF Programme.

💙 Continuing our twice-weekly sessions at The Hive, where the music, laughter and friendships carry on all year round.

🎶 Supporting students with drop-in lessons, catch-up lessons and the final filming of Trinity exams.

🎭 Rehearsing for We Will Rock You with DarlingtonOS

📋 Planning, meetings, timetables, accounts and all the behind-the-scenes jobs that help everything run smoothly when September arrives.

And somewhere in the middle of all that… finding time for a game of Guess Who! ❤️

These photos aren’t the big performances or the standing ovations. They’re the little moments that nobody usually sees, but they’re every bit as important.

We’re looking forward to more summer performances, more memories and, before we know it, welcoming everyone back for another brilliant term.

Thank you for being part of the journey. We can’t wait to see what the rest of the summer brings!

Find out more about joining us here:
https://www.thevoicesgroup.org/The-Green-Room


Enjoy Darlington

We’ve got a little challenge for you…this summer, we want to see where your voice takes you! 🌍

Whether you’re on holiday, in your garden, at the beach, up a mountain or just out enjoying the sunshine, send us a short video of you singing your favourite song.

The best part? Everyone can enter! Whether you’re already part of Voices or you’ve never sung with us before, anywhere in the world!

The competition is open throughout the summer, and during the first week of September we’ll choose our three favourite videos to win a FREE private singing lesson.

To enter:
🎶 Record a 30 second clip of yourself singing.
💬 Post your video in the comments below, or WhatsApp it to us on 07480 473689.
☀️ Closes 31st August
🎤 Winners will receive lessons 7th-11th Sep 26
🛜 Remote from wherever you are or in person (Darlington)

We can’t wait to see where your voice takes you! ❤️

Tag someone who has to take on the challenge with you! 🎤


Enjoy Darlington Darlington For Culture

🎨❤️ A wonderful way to end another fantastic term…

As we look back on an incredible year, it felt only right to finish the way we always do… by spending quality time together.💕

Thanks to everyone who supported our Friends & Family raffle, over 140 singers were able to enjoy our end-of-term Arty Parties, filled with creativity, karaoke, treats, laughter and plenty of time with friends.

A huge thank you to our wonderful teacher and professional artist, Sam Wright, for leading such brilliant sessions and helping everyone create something special to take home.

Looking through these photos reminds us that Voices has always been about so much more than singing. It’s about friendship, belonging, creativity and making memories together.

Thank you to every singer, family member, volunteer and supporter for making this such a special year. ❤️

Have a fantastic summer! We’ll still be out and about performing in the community over the holidays, so we hope to see many of you before we start another exciting term together in September.

Find out more about joining us here:
https://www.thevoicesgroup.org/The-Green-Room

Darlington