About Us
Lincoln Sounds was formed in 1995 with only 10 members - ex-’barbershop widows’ who had spent many hours listening to their husbands sing barbershop as members of the Lincoln men’s barbershop chorus, Harmony Lincs. They decided to form their own ladies chorus (initially as Lincoln Sound Impressions) and we are currently over 40-strong.
In 2000, the chorus became a member of Sweet Adelines International, a worldwide organisation of women singers committed to advancing barbershop harmony through education and performance, This meant that apart from a name change from the original Lincoln Sound Impressions to Lincoln Sounds, we also became members of Sweet Adelines Region 31 (Quartet of Nations), which covers England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales (with the recent addition of The Netherlands).
Our Music Director, ALYSON CHANEY, has been involved with the chorus almost from the beginning. She also sings with
Lace City Singers, a gold medal-winning barbershop chorus from Nottingham, was a member of the gold medal-winning quartet Sound Bites and was the Education Coordinator on the Region 31 Management Team. She now sings with the quartet Storm, which won the Silver Medal this year at Convention and with one of the highest scores across the Sweet Adelines world, qualifies to represent the UK as a wildcard entry at International in Hawaii in October.
Through our links with Sweet Adelines we meet members of other Sweet Adeline choruses across the UK and around the world and take part in the Region 31 Annual Convention, where we compete against the other UK Sweet Adeline choruses. In 2004, we were delighted to win the ‘Most Improved Chorus’ award and last year (2007) made it into the Top-10. when we won 3rd Place Mid-Size Chorus medals and were placed 8th overall - our best performance to date! But this year we are the Small Chorus gold medal winners with our highest ever score.
We compete annually in the Lincoln Music Festival where, amongst others, we are in competition with our local men’s barbershop chorus, Harmony Lincs – from where it all started. In March this year (2008) we won the Barbershop Class for the 2nd time with the adjudicator describing our performance as 'OUTSTANDING, an exceptional performance, both technically and artistically', and our score of 91 points was the highest in the whole choral competition.
We sing regularly at a variety of venues around the Lincoln area including local charities, WI social evenings, concerts and weddings. We have sung on the local radio station – and even recorded a ‘jingle’ for them - and have been sponsored by a locally-based international company, Cargill’s, to sing at local retirement homes during the Christmas period.
We have also received support from the Lincolnshire Co-op Ltd in the form of a grant to help us with our various expenses.
But mainly, of course, WE JUST LOVE TO SING! So if you would like to book us to give you the 'barbershop' experience, or just visit us during our rehearsal, contact us.
