The People's Orchestra and The People's Show Choir Podcast, January 2025: Our First Episode

Introduction with Matt Ward (0:00)

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0:08 Matt Ward: Hi, I’m Matt Ward, and you’re listening to The People’s Orchestra and Show Choir Podcast, a new monthly show for 2025 that takes a look back over the past month, informs you about what’s happening now, and takes a view forward to what’s coming up for The People’s Orchestra and The People’s Show Choir. This month we’ll be hearing from some of the great people that are associated with this amazing charity. I’ll be chatting with choral director Ula Weber to find out what goes on behind the scenes, I’ll meet volunteer Sandra Caddick and ask her about why she joined the choir, and I’ll catch up with The People’s Orchestra’s CEO, Sarah Marshall.

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December's lookback (0:42)

0:42 Matt: First, though, let’s take a look back at what happened in December. As well as local choir performances, and an afternoon of busking for the Rusty Orchestra at New Street Station, we had two main Christmas concerts where our choirs and orchestra got together to perform: on the 7th of December, at Birmingham Town Hall, followed by a repeat event at Duke’s Hall in the Royal Academy of Music in London on the 15th of December. The Christmas concert is one of the major events in the charity’s calendar, and a rare opportunity for the orchestra and numerous show choirs to gather locally and perform together for a large audience in a prestigious venue – so the event always creates a buzz.

Christmas concert at Birmingham Town Hall (1:24)

1:24 Matt: I sent Piña Colada Girl out to Birmingham Town Hall with her microphone to capture some of the spirit of the day from the members of the choir, orchestra and crew, and this is what they had to say about their big day out.

1:38 “I love this concert. Coming into my third year of being the conductor of the orchestra, and just hearing it all mix in with the choir is absolutely magical. It’s so great that we’re getting to showcase this today – it’s so exciting! There are some really great pieces as well, so if you haven’t seen us before, you should come and watch us and enjoy it. It’s absolutely great – can’t wait, cannot wait!”

2:05 “Well, I was there last year, so yeah, it was brilliant. Who would have thought I’d ever get to perform at the Town Hall in Birmingham? But it was with a load of people as well – strength in numbers – and I think we sounded amazing. So I didn’t want to miss out on the opportunity again, because it was fantastic. It was so uplifting, and it’s good to share with other people.”

2:30 “Because I’ve never done anything like it before – the first time, it’s a big audience and a sold-out show. It’s just fun to perform with the choir and have everybody together, and the Christmas songs obviously always make it feel a bit more festive.”

2:40 “Well, hopefully they have a wonderful, warm, cosy Christmas feeling when they come to the show. I think it’s an amazing community, and the fact that we’re able to sell out a town hall as an amateur orchestra is fantastic. I’ve never seen that anywhere else.”

2:58 “At the moment I’m loving the fact that these songs are from musicals, because as a child you just sing along, and you never think you’re going to get the opportunity to actually sing them to other people, as part of a big group. Because it’s so powerful – the sound is so powerful – it’s like bringing those songs to life. I’ve watched Home Alone forever, so to be able to sing those songs at Christmas to other people, and give them that cheery feeling, and bring that song to life, is amazing.”

3:25 “It’s quite an interesting thing. It makes me feel special – there’s both the nerves before the concert, as well as the enjoyment of actually doing it. But probably the most important thing is I really enjoy putting smiles on people’s faces. It means that, indirectly, I can make other people enjoy their time while they’re listening to songs they love, from various films, musicals, games and all the other kinds.”

3:50 “This year, Christmas performance again at the Town Hall – I think I’ve got about six or seven concerts in total in December, because I’m part of the Ringers Choir as well, so we’re going to go and sing with some other choirs and help them out. And I’m particularly looking forward to next year: at the end of March, of course, we’ll be playing Symphony Hall. Birmingham Town Hall is about a thousand people; Symphony Hall is over 2,000, so it’s twice the size. Hopefully we’ll fill it – if we could, it’d be magnificent. It’s another fantastic venue. I’ve been there a few times for various bands and performances, never actually thinking that we’d be performing on the stage myself. Brilliant.”

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Rusty Players performing at Birmingham New Street Station (4:48)

4:48 Matt: Right – and Piña Colada Girl also went to hear the Rusty Orchestra at New Street Station. Take a listen to how that turned out, and what some of the public had to say after listening to the performance.

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5:05 “Well, we heard it when we got off the train. Fantastic – gets you in the mood. Beautiful people, beautiful place – what more do you want?”

5:15 “I think it just lifts your mood up, you know? If you’re having a bad day, when you listen to music, you actually feel good about yourself – and I think that’s what music’s all about. And in a public space, if someone’s sad, you’re actually making their day better.”

5:30 Matt: And we’ll have more about the Rusty Orchestra in an episode later this year – or you can find out more about them now at thepeoplesorchestra.com.

Ula Weber (6:11)

5:40 Matt: It may not be obvious, but gathering choirs together from different areas of the country, and then getting them all to sing in synchronisation with a short amount of rehearsal on the day, takes meticulous organisation. There are 20 branches of The People’s Show Choir around the UK, so a lot of thought goes into coordinating each one of those throughout the year, to ensure that the rehearsal work on the day of the mass events is a case of refining and polishing what has already been learned. In December I spoke with choral director Ula Weber, and found out exactly how she goes about ensuring that choir leaders and singers from all The People’s Show Choirs are literally singing from the same hymn sheet. So – good morning, Ula!

6:25 Ula Weber: Morning! How are you?

6:27 Matt: I’m very well, thank you. Now, you’ve just been up to Birmingham this weekend for the Christmas concert, haven’t you? How was that?

6:32 Ula: Yes, I have. It was absolutely fantastic. I think it was our best Christmas concert yet. It was really, really good fun.

6:38 Matt: So what was the standout moment of the day for you?

6:40 Ula: That’s a really, really difficult question, because actually I think everything we sang together, everything we performed together – because of course it was choir and orchestra – they were all standout pieces. Do I have a favourite moment of the day? Actually, I do. It’s not actually in the concert; it’s in the rehearsal. It’s when we first bring all of the choirs together for the first time. Some people are brand new to The People’s Show Choir, some people have never performed in a mass choir before, and we brought together quite a lot of choirs for the very first time. And just that first moment, when they sing together, is a joyous experience, because they realise just what a sound they’re creating. It just kind of washes over me, and I absolutely love that.

7:30 Matt: It must be magical. So in the choirs you must have people of all different abilities. What’s your approach to embracing and nurturing all of those abilities, and bringing them together to create the kind of sound that you want?

7:45 Ula: Well, on a day like Saturday, it’s quite challenging, because we don’t really have very much time to bring together those pieces and get them to a standard to perform in the concert. We have maybe an hour and a half’s worth of rehearsal. So really, it’s down to the choir leaders, and all of the work that they put in before we get to that point. What we do is: I send some repertoire notes to the choir leaders, and give them some ideas on the specifics of each piece – so, “could you make sure that we’re not breathing in this bit”, or “that we all take a breath here”, or “that we all come off on this word here”. So at least that part of it everybody can do, and that’s nice and easy.

8:30 In terms of the mixed ability, as you say, of the people in front of you, you kind of have to go with somewhere in the middle. And then those who are really experienced singers often find themselves supporting those who are slightly less experienced. And those who are maybe brand new, who’ve never sung in a choir before – on a day like Saturday, they just get swept up. And they will have put that preparation in anyway, with their choir leaders, before Saturday.

8:55 Matt: What is it that you love so much about choral music? Because you seem really excited. Is it working with people? Is it the sound of the music? What keeps you with choral?

9:12 Ula: You know, I think it’s got to be the people. I’ve conducted a lot of choirs over my years, but the biggest joy I get is working with choirs that are unauditioned, because they are people who come because they absolutely love to sing, regardless of their ability. So one of my favourite things, generally, with any kind of choir, is getting them to be as good as they can possibly be, and giving them that sense of achievement and satisfaction of reaching that really amazing quality, whilst having a lot of fun in the process. It’s all about the people.

9:50 Matt: Yeah – I sense that throughout the whole organisation, actually. Everybody seems to be about everybody else. It seems very inclusive, and everybody’s singing everybody else’s praises all the time. I’ve heard a lot of great things about you, actually!

10:02 Ula: Oh dear!

10:04 Matt: So I’ve heard a lot about warm-up songs. What’s your favourite warm-up song, and could you teach me to sing it?

10:10 Ula: Oh my goodness. There are lots of warm-up songs. Basically, whenever I’m starting up a choir from scratch, the first thing I do in a rehearsal is not say anything. I don’t speak, I don’t say hello – I just get everybody singing. And it kind of depends – I don’t have a specific favourite; it depends on the vibe I’m getting in the room, maybe the time of year. For example, it’s Christmas right now, so I did do a little Christmas song in last night’s rehearsal, just to get everybody in the mood. But generally speaking, it might be something like – Sing For Pleasure, another organisation that I work for, have got this fabulous round called “Gin and Tonic”. Obviously, it’s gin and tonic, so for adults it works really well!

[Ula sings the round, then teaches it to Matt line by line, call-and-response]

12:05 Ula: Oh – I should have done the other line, shouldn’t I?! So there’s an awful lot of what we call non-verbal communication, so that it doesn’t matter where people have come from. You don’t know them, they don’t know you, and the first thing they experience is singing. I used to be a primary school teacher, and I guess it’s quite similar to your Ofsted inspection, where they expect in a music lesson to just hear sound. It’s a similar kind of thing: how do I get this random group of people together, who are sitting wherever they’ve chosen to sit on that first day – let’s get them singing. And then, once we’ve broken the ice and had a little bit of fun, then I’ll go, “hi everyone, my name’s Ula”, and blah blah blah. So that’s probably my favourite go-to. I call it a gathering song rather than a warm-up song. It’s a gathering song – it brings everybody together.

13:05 Matt: And you can throw lots of those in at different times throughout the year, just to focus everybody.

13:08 Ula: I do that probably more often than not. I start a rehearsal – whether it’s a new choir or not – with some kind of gathering song. Well done, though – that was a good effort from you. You could join my choir!

13:25 Matt: Oh, thank you very much! No, I enjoyed it, Ula – it’s been brilliant talking to you. Thank you so much for taking the time.

13:35 Ula: You’re very welcome. It’s been lovely to chat to you as well.

CEO Sarah Marshall (13:45)

13:45 Matt: Now, as a member, it would be very easy for you to just pay your subscription, turn up and sing, and think no more about it. But as well as the enjoyment that is shared by members, there’s also a much more meaningful reason behind why we go to all this effort, and that is to raise money for our charity and those that we support. Here with me now to tell us a bit more about the charitable work that the organisation does is The People’s Orchestra’s CEO, Sarah Marshall. Hello, Sarah!

14:10 Sarah Marshall: Hello – lovely to be here.

14:12 Matt: For anybody that’s new to the organisation, can you sum up in two minutes why you started The People’s Orchestra and Show Choirs, and who it helps as a charity?

14:22 Sarah: It started from a conversation with my daughter’s French horn teacher, Mr Sandham, about the opportunities for players to be able to play once they leave school. So we started The People’s Orchestra with the idea that people would have somewhere to go once they left education. To do that, we applied to the Arts Council, and they very kindly gave us a grant for six months to do a project. We did the concert – we did Symphony Hall – and it was fantastic. And at the end of that, all the volunteers that were working with us on that project got back into work really quickly, and they were saying it was because they had something to talk about on their CV. I was also left with an orchestra that wanted to carry on!

15:10 So we then became a charity. We continued to support volunteers who were coming to help us put on the events, learning marketing, business admin, etc. as they went along, and from that the social impact side of what we do really grew. Now we help hundreds of people each year to get back on their feet, get back into work, grow their confidence. Some might have been out of work for decades, some might have caring responsibilities, or come from broken homes – there are loads of reasons why they may be struggling to get into work. And because we’re not a government agency, they feel very at ease with us, and we can support them for years to get them back into work. The charity has probably helped nearly 2,000 people back into work since it started, which is just amazing.

16:05 We were then asked for help with their benefits – could we help them with that? So we pivoted and started helping people with benefits advice as well, which we still do. And we still support students in work placements in the office.

16:25 And from that, the orchestra kept growing. They did some fantastic shows. They were on the BBC’s All Together Now series, where they got to record in Abbey Road, which was brilliant. And from then, we had more musicians coming to us who were unsure about being able to play with TPO, so we started up the Rusty Orchestras, for people that weren’t quite feeling they could do TPO – The People’s Orchestra – so they come along. We have four Rusty Orchestras now: Black Country, Birmingham, and two down in Wales. And then we had people who couldn’t play an instrument but wanted to be on stage with TPO – so the choirs morphed from that, and that’s why we’ve got loads of choirs now.

17:15 Matt: So where is the organisation now? Or it might be easier to say: what’s been great about 2024?

17:20 Sarah: What’s been great about 2024 is we’ve been able to help some really vulnerable people who are really struggling at this time of their lives, especially with the cost-of-living crisis and increasing prices of everything. So we’re really pleased that we’ve been able to help some families get over their financial struggles, and get back into work. The stories that have come out of that have been absolutely amazing.

17:50 We’ve had a great influx of choirs. We’ve started four new choirs this year – up in York, Weston-super-Mare, Coventry and Malvern – which have been fantastic, and we’ve been growing the choirs that we’ve already got. So from that point of view it’s been great – we’ve got to know lots more new people. And we’ve had some fantastic mass events and sell-out concerts. We’ve just come off the back of a sell-out concert at Birmingham Town Hall, and then we got to go down to London and play the Royal Academy of Music for the first time, which was just amazing.

18:25 Matt: Brilliant. So where are you going in 2025? What’s new – apart from this podcast, of course?

18:30 Sarah: Apart from this fantastic podcast! In 2025 we’re going to be really concentrating on building our choirs and our orchestras, so any musicians, any singers out there, please do come along. We’ll be concentrating a lot on where we put new choirs – we’ve got a few ideas in mind; you’ll have to hang on before we announce those – but we’re hoping to have another three or four choirs launched this year. And we’re arranging some fantastic music for orchestras and choirs that you won’t have heard before, so the concerts are just going to be amazing.

19:05 Matt: You can find out about the locations of those new choirs at thepeoplesorchestra.com.

Donate to make a difference (19:16)

19:16 Matt: And it’s a very worthwhile cause, so if you’d like to make a donation now, head to the website, thepeoplesorchestra.com, and click on the Donate button.

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Sandra Caddick on the "Staple Squad" (19:31)

19:31 Matt: Now, as a charity, every penny counts. And where we may be financially under-resourced, the one thing that has become clear to me in listening to members and staff is the spirit of generosity that runs through The People’s Orchestra and The People’s Show Choir like a vein through marble. One area where our members donate most generously is with their time, helping out with tasks that are essential to making events like the Christmas concert a huge success. In order to pull an event like that together, 20,000 copies of music are produced, and in the spirit of “many hands make light work”, the Staple Squad was born: a group of volunteers who come in on certain days just to do stapling. One of those volunteers is Sandra Caddick, and before Christmas I met her online for a chat. Hello, Sandra!

20:20 Sandra Caddick: Hello, Matt – lovely to see you.

20:22 Matt: Good to see you too. So what was it that made you want to get into the choir?

20:25 Sandra: After lockdown, I decided I wanted to try and do lots of different things. I hadn’t been a member of a choir since school – 40-odd years ago – and I don’t read music. But I thought, let me Google, as you do, and find out what’s in the local area. The People’s Show Choir popped up, and I thought, “well, I’ve got nothing to lose – I’ll go along and have a try-out”, because you get two or three weeks, which is great. And then I thought, “this is great”. This was at Halesowen, because at that time we weren’t as big as we are now, and West Bromwich, which is obviously my home town, wasn’t open. And then I decided that I loved it, paid my membership, and I’ve been a member ever since.

21:20 Matt: Fantastic. So since joining the choir, you’ve got involved in volunteering with the Stapling Squad. How did you get involved with that?

21:28 Sandra: There are various WhatsApp chats that you get invited to, so you can be as involved as you want to be in the organisation. There’s something called the Ringers Choir, which is another branch of the choir – when you go and support other choirs if they’re short on numbers, because obviously people are working and can’t get to things. And then there was this one WhatsApp message that came out: would anybody like to come and help staple? So I was intrigued, and I thought, “yeah, why not?”

22:00 Basically, there’s lovely Matthew, who’s the librarian, and a few other members of staff who get involved – and the photocopier doesn’t actually put staples in! So if you can imagine the amount of music they need now… I think it was manageable before, when we were small, but now I think there are something like 900 pieces of music every time we do a new song. They all need stapling and sending out to all the choirs – I think there are 20 choirs now – so they need to get things out to everybody locally, and up in the Black Country as well. So it was just one of those opportunities, and again, you get to meet other choir members – I think there are about 12 of us on the list, maybe more, because you can’t always go when they put a shout-out for volunteers. And you get a cup of tea and a biscuit, and you have a nice chat. So it’s the sort of additional thing you can get involved in if you want to.

23:15 Matt: So do you have any idea of the number of staples, and the number of sheets of paper, that are involved in what you’re doing?

23:22 Sandra: Well, I think they did an announcement – was it 20,000 a year or something? It’s big numbers. I think Amy, who was introducing all the stuff, was saying it’s the sheer volume – I think it was Amy sitting at home doing it when we were just small, but now, with the sheer volume, you need as many hands on deck as possible. And I think everybody that’s holding a piece of music on rehearsal day or concert day – it’s been stapled by somebody. It could be me, or it could be somebody else who’s a member of the choir.

24:00 Matt: So how does that feel, when you turn up to the Christmas concert, and you see everybody holding their music, and you think, “I stapled that”?

24:08 Sandra: See, the thing is, when you get to the concert, everybody will have taken their staples out, because you have to put it in a concert folder! They need it for rehearsals, obviously, because it’s easier, but then when you get to concert day, everybody spends all their time unpicking them!

24:22 Matt: All my work undone!

24:24 Sandra: Yeah – mixed emotions, as you can imagine! But yeah, in terms of concert folders, we all have to hold our nice black folders so that it looks more professional.

24:35 Matt: So what is it that you love most about the choir? I know you’ve talked about how you came to join it, but what keeps you there? What keeps you going back every week?

24:45 Sandra: I think it’s the sense of… it’s a choir family now. You make friends, like you do in any situation – these are friends for life now. I know that if I turn up, it won’t just be the people that I sit around – because I’m in the soprano bit – there’ll be people from the altos, the baritones. Everybody gets the opportunity to be included. It’s very inclusive. I’ve got two choir leaders, because I go to Halesowen with Chris on a Monday, and Charlotte in West Bromwich on a Wednesday, and they just include you in everything. It’s just a fun, happy event. So the reason I turn up is because it’s great. It’s absolutely marvellous.

25:45 Matt: Fantastic. Thank you so much, Sandra, for taking the time to talk to me. From everybody that I’ve spoken to, they love having you in the choir, and love your spirit and your volunteering – and long may it go on!

25:58 Sandra: Oh, 100% – every time there’s a shout-out, they can count on me. I’m part of the walking choir as well, which I thoroughly enjoy.

26:05 Matt: Brilliant – and we’ll hear more about that in a later episode. Thank you, Sandra.

26:10 Sandra: Look forward to it. Take care, Matt.

How do I get involved? (26:25)

26:15 Matt: If you would like to get involved in volunteering to help with stapling, or anything else, get in touch through thepeoplesorchestra.com.

January is a quiet time of year for events, as we are now building up to our That’s What We Call Film Music event on Mother’s Day at Birmingham Symphony Hall, and the Scottish Highlands tour in May. But remember that rehearsals start up again at the beginning of January. If you aren’t yet a member of the choir but you would like to give it a go, you can try it out for two weeks free by going to our website, thepeoplesorchestra.com, and clicking on “two weeks free”. And put our Come and Sing Day at Cheltenham Ladies’ College in your diary for the 15th of February. If you would like to get involved with one of our growing walking choir events, those start up again in January in Halesowen and West Bromwich on January the 18th, and you can find out the details of exactly where and what time to meet up by going to thepeoplesorchestra.com and clicking on Events.

Thank you (27:18)

27:18 Matt: Thank you for listening to this episode of The People’s Orchestra and Show Choir Podcast. Tune in next month, when I’ll be talking to Chris Weber and Dr Nick Makwana about the amazing choir tour to Poland that we did in the summer of 2024, and what further international tours are being lined up. Our Cheltenham choir, which nearly ended, has risen like a phoenix from the ashes, and I’ll talk to Bonnie Toner, who is one of the founding members of that choir and has lived through the transition. I’ll also talk to Julian Powell, one of the board of trustees, about his role, and I’ll catch up with Lorna Parkhouse, leader of the Shrewsbury choir, about the additional performance opportunities for her choir members within the local community.

27:55 Check out the website, thepeoplesorchestra.com, and follow The People’s Orchestra and The People’s Show Choir social media channels. And if you would like to find out more about how I can help you with making a podcast, take a look at my website, audioeditingsecrets.com, and follow my social media, which is @audioeditingsecrets, on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, X and TikTok. I’m Matt Ward – thank you for listening.

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