With a beautiful voice – NN Journal

July 13, 2024

The choir in full voice. Photo by Courtney Carpenter.

Stephen Bell has been performing and conducting in and around Northamptonshire for over 35 years, not only with choirs but also working with brass, symphonic wind bands and orchestras. He says there is nothing better than live music.

“Live music creates a sound in the room that you can’t reproduce with headphones,” he says.

The Northampton Male Voice Choir (NMVC) performs over 30 concerts a year under Stephen’s direction, often supporting local fundraising projects, and has a varied repertoire of 50 to 60 songs.

“We play traditional music, but also songs you wouldn’t expect from a male choir, including works by living composers and new music. We are a light choir and we deliberately maintain a modern look that we hope will appeal to audiences. I work out our program months in advance, but I don’t tell the choir what we’re performing until the show. It’s a real challenge; they hear the opening notes and have to figure out immediately what song it is!”

Stephen conducts a concert in the style of ‘Last Night of the Proms’. NMVC image.

That sounds incredibly demanding. So is Stephen a strict taskmaster?

“I am very clear about my expectations and I don’t let anyone off the hook. It’s important not to be stupid, but to set your own standards high and work towards what you expect from people. It’s valuable to strive for a high standard, something that conveys the joy of participation and the recognition that we have achieved something worthwhile. Diction, for example, is very important. Pronunciation must be ‘noble’, working on the vowels, not the ‘knitting’ between them.

“The more I work with different groups, the more I develop. I have developed skills over time and am a people-oriented motivator. Sometimes I pull, but sometimes I give a strong shove. I can be a bit grumpy! I expect choir members to work on the songs for twenty minutes a day between rehearsals. Because we don’t rehearse to get it right, we rehearse to avoid getting it wrong. Once the choir has learned the music, we reach a whole new level of performance.”

Given that many mixed choirs struggle to find enough tenors and basses, it may be surprising that the NMVC has so many members, but Stephen says finding new members is no problem.

“There is no shortage of men wanting to join. In fact, I recently started a new choir in Oundle where I live. I wonder now why I didn’t do it sooner! I ran a taster session and over 30 people came and now we have a group of regulars in a mixed choir.

“Achieving a good vocal range is another matter entirely. For example, it’s not uncommon for a female voice to sing baritone. To be inclusive, there’s a tendency to refer to them as high and low voices. The combination can create a beautiful sound.”

Stephen sings with his choir and others as part of Collide: A Choirfest Experience! Photo by Courtney Carpenter.

Stephen chooses the music programme to appeal to the widest possible audience. They do quite a few church and benefit concerts, which usually bring their own audiences, although the choir also has a core of regular supporters. They also do joint concerts, and the other music groups bring some audience members. For example, in 2019 the choir joined forces with the CIS Championship Brass Band for a ‘Last Night of the Proms’ concert. A more recent collaboration was ‘Collide: A Choirfest Experience!’, where NMVC joined forces with the Queen Eleanor Choir and Northants Sings Out (West) for an ambitious celebration of a mix of musical genres and styles.

“People often come up to me after a concert and say that they would like to join based on what they have seen and heard. We don’t do auditions as such, but I do what I call a voice test because not everyone is a good fit. I always let applicants know in person if I need to explain to them that I don’t think this choir is for them. Members don’t necessarily have to be able to read music, but it helps.”

As well as the main choir, there is NMVC Lite, an invitation-only group of singers selected for their vocal mix, who can perform a different repertoire and sing in smaller venues where the main choir may not fit. Another of Stephen’s success stories is his participation in Men United In Song 2024, part of a national programme funded by Arts Council England to raise money to support Prostate Cancer UK. 27 NMVC men took part, but the majority were new to choral singing and public performance.

“I set the group a challenge to learn ten songs in ten weeks. They did that – plus one more – and by the end they knew all the songs by heart. We played our first concert in May at Higham Ferrers to a sold-out crowd, which was an incredible experience. We were also amazed at the emotions that came out of us at the end of this musical journey together. People really opened up to each other.”

The choir’s slogan is United in friendship and harmony.

Stephen says: