The rehearsals for our show Queeroes were relocated to Hastière for two days. Each singer played a role in making this weekend a magical moment. Sometimes you don’t have to look far to find Queeroes!
Sing Out Brussels! is a community choir. Not only because it brings together people from the LGBTQI+ community, but also because each member participates in the construction of the project. Our working weekend was a good illustration of this. While we are working this year on the theme of heroism, we realise that we are in fact dealing with heroic people on a daily basis.
First of all, there are the members of our Board: Kit, Alex, Danielle, Robbie, Matthew and Sheila. Most of the choir members are unaware of the enormous amount of work that goes on behind the scenes to keep the choir running. It requires a lot of energy, but it’s also so rewarding!
There is our choir director Emily Allison, who is always patient and concerned for the well-being of the group. She is very demanding and constantly encourages us to surpass ourselves in order to give the best of ourselves. There is our artistic director Simon Paco, who observes us in silence during rehearsals. Nothing escapes his keen eye and his advice allows us to improve a movement or our attitude on stage.
Our choir has several groups of volunteers, which we call ‘Joy Teams’. First of all, the Creative Joy Team, which is in charge of designing our shows. Elli, Kelci, Tong and Danielle gave us our first joint reading of the script for the show ‘Queeroes’, which allowed us to better understand the dynamics of the show and the emotion it will arouse in the audience. We also rehearsed the choreography for our songs a lot with the help of Julie, Charlotte, Erell, Till, Mathilde. They have been patiently repeating the same moves over and over again for several weeks and are flexible when it comes to adapting their creation to the group. Finally, Framboise looks after the costumes and gives advice.
Our Joy Team Communication was also hard at work this weekend. Matthew coordinates the team. Kit produced a very nice Reel that was posted on our social networks. Josephine filmed our rehearsals. Christophe wrote this article on our blog.
Our Joy Team Community Building, coordinated by Robbie, made sure to offer a variety of activities to spice up the weekend. The highlight was our ‘Spice up your life’ party on Saturday night. Before that, we took part in a music quiz prepared by Scott. On Saturday afternoon, some of the choir members went for a walk while others took part in a workshop led by Yonatan Volfin, a musician who is writing a thesis on the social ties within LGBTQI+ choirs and who has been closely following the activities of our association for the past few weeks. On Friday evening, the choir members had the choice between karaoke, board games… or taking advantage of the services of our clandestine nail salon
During the weekend, the choir members also had the pleasure of hearing for the first time the anthem of the Various Voices Brussels 2026 festival that we are organising next year. The song Let Your Heart Be Heard was composed especially for the occasion by Simon Finn, a member of our choir. Marina and Christophe, two of the people in charge of organising the festival, presented the song to the choir members and answered their questions.
Laure, our trusted person, ensured conflict prevention within the group. There were inevitably tense moments when so many people live under the same roof.
Let’s not forget our Strategy Joy Team, which is already preparing the future of our choir and its strategic plan for 2030: Valérie, Damien, Vera, Marina and Arsinoë do a particularly important job behind the scenes to guarantee the long-term viability of our association and reflect on the major challenges we face.
As usual, we feasted on the dishes provided by Apus and the Cocottes Volantes. Our weekend chefs were Stefano, husband of one of our singers, and Antoine, a non-singing member this season.
Finally, there are the singers who are not mentioned here but who, by their presence, have demonstrated their commitment. Around fifty adults with busy family and/or professional lives have devoted an entire weekend to rehearsing, singing and dancing for the group rather than for their own personal interest. In this sense, our members are unquestionably Queeroes and can’t wait to show you on stage!