Vox Populi

30/05/2026

✨ A week ago today, our final concert of the season took place at St Lawrence’s Church, Mereworth, Kent, and featured performances by Vox Anima Chamber Choir and Vox Populi. ✨

🎶 The Chamber Choir performed a varied programme combining movements from Cecilia McDowall's 'Everyday Wonders: The Girl from Aleppo', and pieces reflecting the cantata’s themes of unrest, uncertainty, hope, and defiance.

🎶 Vox Populi performed Matthew Coleridge’s uplifting new work, 'The Breath of Life', developing the theme from hope, via nature’s unwavering trust in renewal, to one of celebration for our shared living world, and our connection to one another through music!

🥰 We were joined by a full and supportive audience, with many new faces showing their appreciation and praising both choirs for their impressive performances. Thank you to all who came to support us! 🙏

💖 Our heartfelt thanks also goes to Hilary Dilnot for her wonderful accompaniment of Vox Populi in rehearsals this year, to James Meaders for continuing to inspire and lead our choirs with encouragement and passion, and to Richard Hammond-Hall for his sensitive and intuitive collaboration. 🙏

📣 Head to our website to read more and hear about our upcoming events!
https://www.friendsofthevox.org/news/the-breath-of-life

22/05/2026

🎶 Our wonderful SATB choir, Vox Populi, is based in West Malling, Kent. 🎶

✨ Do come along to our concert TOMORROW to get a taste of what our choirs are all about!

✨ Vox Populi and Vox Anima Chamber Choir will be performing a range of stunning works by contemporary composers, including Matthew Coleridge's new cantata 'The Breath of Life'.

🎶 Come to St Lawrence's Church in Mereworth for a 7pm start - entrance is free with donations on the door!

To find out more about our choirs, head to our website or get in touch!
https://www.friendsofthevox.org/our-choirs

19/05/2026

✨ Four days to go until our final concert of the season! ✨

🎶 'The Breath of Life', Matthew Coleridge 's new radiant work, draws on sacred texts, hymns, and poetry to explore themes of Christianity, spirituality and humanism. The final movement draws text from five different authors, full of wonder at how we are connected in life, both spiritually, and through nature. It celebrates the wondrous beauty of life and love, and how music connects us all!

🌞 viii. The Breath of Life is in the Sunlight:

The breath of life is in the sunlight,
and the hand of life is in the wind. (Kahlil Gibran)

And our bodies are the instruments
through which our souls play the music. (Albert Einstein)

Echoing with the stars,
singing and shining together as one. (John Muir)

Praise God, from whom all blessings flow;
Praise him, all creatures here below;
Praise him above, ye heav'nly host;
Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. (Bishop Thomas Ken)

Beauty beyond thought everywhere;
beneath, above; made, and being made forever. (John Muir)

Thou flowing water, pure and clear,
Make music for thy Lord to hear. (William H. Draper)

And shining with the stars above
We swim through seas of ceaseless love.
Amen.

🎶Vox Populi will be performing this stunning new work at this Saturday's concert.
Vox Anima Chamber Choir will be performing a beautifully curated programme of its previous repertoire, and a reflection of the world we find ourselves in today.
Both choirs will be conducted by James Meaders, and accompanied by pianist Richard Hammond-Hall.

📅 Saturday 23 May
⏰ 7pm
📍 St Lawrence's Church, Mereworth, Kent
🎫 Entrance free, donations on the door

We hope to see you there!

04/05/2026

🎶✨ Upcoming concert: The Breath of Life ✨🎶

Happy bank holiday Monday! Are you taking some time to plan the precious May weekends ahead? Why not add an evening of beautiful new music to your diary?!

Join Vox Populi and Vox Anima Chamber Choir for this celebration of all "in which is the breath of life"!

Featuring Matthew Coleridge's stunning new cantata, along with music by Zanaida Robles, Joan Szymko, Davis N Childs, Eleanor Daley, and Kevin T. Padworski, this concert brings together both of our choirs for their final concert of the summer term.

📅 Saturday 23 May
⏰ 7pm
📍 St Lawrence's Church, Mereworth, Kent ME18 5LY
Entrance is free (donations on the door)

💖 We can't wait to see you there!

02/04/2026

Some dates for your diary 📆🎶

✨🌺 Come along to hear our wonderful choirs perform in London and Kent this May! 🌺✨

🎶 On Saturday 9 May, Vox Anima Chamber Choir joins London Oriana Choir, Addison Singers Chamber Choir, and City Chamber Choir to celebrate the birthday of Cecilia McDowall, presenting a gala concert of her music!

📍 Holy Trinity Sloane Square
🕕 7.30pm
🎟 Tickets available here: https://www.tickettailor.com/.../londonorianachoir/2105806

🎶 On Saturday 23 May, Friends of the Vox presents The Breath of Life, a concert featuring Matthew Coleridge's brand new cantata. Vox Populi and Vox Anima Chamber Choir will perform a varied programme perfect for springtime reflection!

📍 St Lawrence's Church, Mereworth, Kent
🕕 7pm
🎟 Entrance free (suggested donation £15)

Visit our website for more information!
https://www.friendsofthevox.org/our-upcoming-events

13/01/2026

We are excited to be back singing together this week. Why not come along and give Vox Populi a try, or tell a friend about the choir? New members are always welcome. 🎶😊

🎶📣 Calling all keen singers to West Malling! 📣🎶

Vox Populi begins rehearsing its 2026 programme this week, with some of its dedicated members travelling from as far away as Surrey!

Focusing predominantly on the works of living composers, Vox Populi is a friendly and enthusiastic SATB choir, passionate about crafting beautiful sounds, improving musical skills, and creating expressive narratives through a variety of music.

Led by our inspiring Artistic Director, James Meaders, the choir meets every Wednesday during term time, and performs twice a year. Rehearsals take place at West Malling Primary School, from 7.45pm. This spring the choir will be performing a new cantata by British composer, Matthew Coleridge, 'The Breath of Life'.

✨ If you are excited about singing for connection, community, and the love of what music can bring to the world, please come along to see what it's all about - no auditions necessary! ✨

20/12/2025

🎄🎶📣 TODAY IS THE DAY! 📣🎶🎄

✨ This much-anticipated event is the culmination of great musical collaboration, community partnership, grand fundraising ventures, and months of rehearsals by a whole host of dedicated musicians - from students to professionals and everyone in-between! We can't wait to share it all with you this evening, so come along tonight for a wonderfully festive evening!

🔔 Hear your favourite Christmas carols and sing along with a live professional orchestra in this beautiful concert hall - and bring your friends!

🕕 6.00pm

📍 Colyer-Fergusson Hall, Gulbenkian Arts Centre, Canterbury

🎫 Tickets are available here, or in person at the Gulbenkian Arts Centre box office:
https://thegulbenkian.co.uk/events/come-and-sing-carols-with-orchestra/

Visit Canterbury My Canterbury Gulbenkian Arts Centre Vox Anima Chamber Choir
Vox Populi Bradstow Music

19/12/2025

Tomorrow is going to be wonderful! Come join us for an evening of festive musical treats as we sing and play you into Christmas week 🎶🌲

✨🎶 24 hours until our final concert of the year! 🎶✨

Join us tomorrow for an evening of festive carols, featuring Vox Anima Chamber Choir, Vox Populi , the Bradstow Singers, and accompanied by Michael Higgins and a full orchestra! Directed by our wonderful Maestro James Meaders, and Bradstow Music's Jacob Bride - Composer , the concert will include well-loved classics, some orchestral film favourites, and fantastic new arrangements of some of your favourite carols, for choir and orchestra!

🎄🎶 So come along to celebrate and sing some carols with us tomorrow evening! The concert starts at 6pm, at the stunning Colyer-Fergusson Hall in Canterbury.

🎫 Tickets can be purchased in advance here:
https://thegulbenkian.co.uk/events/come-and-sing-carols-with-orchestra/
or at the Gulbenkian Arts Centre Box Office.

Visit Canterbury My Canterbury Gulbenkian Arts Centre

08/12/2025

Thank you for the incredible support! There is still time to donate if you feel able to contribute to this wonderful project. 🙏

📣✨ TARGET REACHED!! ✨📣

We are thrilled to have reached our target before the campaign ends, but with 17 hours of giving still to go - can we do more?!

Our match funding is now exhausted, but every pound still matters as we countdown to the deadline of 12pm tomorrow.

🎶 As we have been spreading the word of our wonderful concert event over the weekend, we are even more aware of the AMAZING impact it will have on all who take part!🎶

If you have not yet donated, YOUR SUPPORT CAN STILL MAKE A DIFFERENCE!

👇 Head to our campaign page to find out more and make a donation! 👇
https://donate.biggive.org/campaign/a05WS000006X9XKYA0

THANK YOU! 💖

Vox Anima Chamber Choir
Vox Populi

02/12/2025

📣🌟🎄 The Big Give Christmas Challenge is now LIVE!!

https://donate.biggive.org/campaign/a05WS000006X9XKYA0

This , with the frenzy of Black Friday and Cyber Monday all in the past, why not turn your thoughts to what you can do to help your community through the power of music...

Friends of the Vox are thrilled to have the opportunity to take part in this exciting fundraising opportunity, where every donation you make has DOUBLE the power to make a difference! 💷💷

🙏 Thanks to our generous Pledgers and our campaign Champion, the wonderful Reed Foundation, our target of £2,000 will be matched pound-for-pound for the next seven days, giving us the potential to raise a total of £4,000!

All money raised will go towards funding our upcoming community event, where singers of all abilities from across Kent will come together to rehearse and perform with a full-professional orchestra, led by our Artistic Director James Meaders, at the beautiful Colyer-Fergusson Hall in Canterbury! Student musicians will be shadowing members of the orchestra for the day, and brand new arrangements of well-loved carols, arranged by local composer Jacob Bride - Composer will be performed. The event will be hosted by Vox Anima Chamber Choir, Vox Populi and the Bradstow Singers, all of whom will perform in the evening concert, and our audience will also have the opportunity to sing their favourite carols in this festive setting! 🎶🎄

To book your places to take part or come along to the concert, visit our website!
https://www.friendsofthevox.org/our-upcoming-events/come-and-sing-carols-with-orchestra

Thank you for your support! 💖