Beckenham Acappella Choir

25/04/2026

We had a brilliant first birthday party last night!

Huge thank you to The Three Hounds Beer Company for hosting and for providing a lovely and welcoming social space through our first year 🥰🎉🎵

25/04/2026

A year ago we had our first rehearsal in Venue28 🥰🥳 and what a brilliant first year it has been!

We love being part of the Beckenham and Clockhouse communities and want to thank all everyone who has supported and made us welcome
The Three Hounds Beer Company
Finerprint
Blowing Dandelion
Kelsey House Bar & Kitchen
And many more!

And a massive thank you to all our fabulous members who have made the year so fun and joyful, and and achieved so much in a short space of time!

23/04/2026

A wonderful rehearsal, cake break and finishing learning iconic Life on Mars to celebrate our 1 year birthday tomorrow!

It's been a fabulous adventure with a brilliant group of people. Looking forward to the party tomorrow and next year to come 🥳🎉🎂🎊

21/04/2026

This week is a special one for us - we’re celebrating the first year of Beckenham Acappella 🎉🎉🎉

A year ago we started a new choir in Beckenham. The idea? To bring the joy of music 🎶 community and fun to people in the area on a Thursday night, and extend the amazing singing community we’d built with Palace Acappella Choir to even more people.

Starting a new choir or community group isn’t easy – so when you find a bunch of 30 lovely, like-minded people who want to sing their hearts out and work together to make a gorgeous sound every Thursday night, it’s a special thing ❤️

We've had an amazing journey so far, from our first session learning ‘Blue Moon’ to tackling ‘Life on Mars’ this term, with more fantastic people joining us every step of the way.

We’re celebrating all week – keep an eye out for more!

📸 Eleanor Rastall and Laura Stevens outside Venue28 one year ago - they even brought out the red carpet for us 🤭

16/04/2026

It's World Voice Day, we happened to have a rehearsal and some of us decided to have a bit of fun in celebration......

02/04/2026

Happy birthday to our awesome older sister choir, 7 years old today!

Happy 7th Birthday Palace Acappella! 🥳

Thank you to all members past and present for being part of our singing journey! 🎶

Heres to many years more! 💜

01/04/2026

We love a bit of a challenge 💪 something to stretch ourselves with....!

We're learning this brilliant arrangement of 'Life on Mars' in honour of local music legend David Bowie 🎶 at the request of our members, and they are loving it!

It's providing a lot of fun, pushing us to really hone our learning and listening skills, and giving us an opportunity to sing in more parts than we have done previously ❤️

We can't wait to perform it around Beckenham soon so keep an eye out for us!

20/03/2026

It's International Day of Happiness and I (Eleanor Rastall) am taking time to be grateful I have a job I enjoy.

Some of the things I love the most are:
🥳 choir members generally leave choir feeling better than when they arrived
🫂 choir is about so much more than singing, with community being absolutely core
🥰 within the choir context I get to facilitate members' development and progress (vocal and more) and it's really beautiful and exciting to see

📸 One of my favourite photos of me leading a choir by the awesome Molly Rhianon

19/03/2026

Beckenham is such a beautiful place - especially with blue sky, sunshine and blossom trees! ☀️🌸

And there are SO many blossom trees at this entrance to Beckenham Place Park ❤️

Where are your favourite beauty spots??

11/03/2026

A lovely Beckenham Acappella member gave me (Eleanor Rastall) this for my birthday - it's a phrase I use often in choir rehearsals.

I think it's important to clarify what I mean - and what I don't mean! - when I say sing 'strong and wrong'...

I mean:
🎶 sing out, have fun, give it some energy
🎶 don't be scared of getting it wrong, that's what rehearsal is for

I DON'T mean:
🙅‍♀️we don't need to try
🙅‍♀️ it doesn't matter if we sing this well or not

When we commit and go for it, singing always feels easier, more fun, more together. We listen to each other better, therefore we also tune and blend together better. Everything is better ❤️

And if it goes wrong, well then I can pinpoint EXACTLY what isn't making sense and fix the tiny issue, rather than the whole thing feeling tentative and off kilter.

All my choirs want to achieve the best they can in performance, and this is about SO MUCH MORE than simply getting notes, rhythms and words right. It's about telling the story, engaging with each other and the audience, enjoying what we are singing, creating something that we couldn't do on our own.

We sing better when we aren't scared. So go for it - strong and wrong, loud and proud, give it your best shot without fear!

And if you fancy giving this a go with us then we have a few more taster dates available this spring - details via our website https://www.beckenhamacappella.co.uk/join-us We'd love to see you!