For Morag, it’s a combination of music and sense of community that has kept her coming back to her choir.

She says: “We have many friends in the choir. We celebrate each other’s special birthdays, send each other cards on wedding anniversaries, and sadly, these days we also go to each other’s funerals. “We are like a big family.”

It was by chance that Morag discovered the Preston Orpheus Choir, which has existed since 1929.

She says: “We were in Argentina at the time, which was not a good place to be in 1982. The Falklands War broke out and we returned home. I went to a Christmas service at St Mary Magdalene’s in Ribbleton and stood next to a member of the choir. He heard me singing and said, ‘Would you like to come and join our choir?’”

This camaraderie is one of the things Song County director Loz Kaye identifies as a benefit of joining a singing group.

He says: “What makes singing so special for people is the connection they feel to the communities around them. And the act of singing is something that brings joy, but also well-being. There’s plenty of great research showing benefits for everything from lung health to combating isolation.

“Lancashire has an extraordinary singing history. In Rossendale, 200 years ago, there was a group called the Larks of Dean in a country chapel. They were writing their own music. “One of the groups that still exists is the Lancaster Priory Choir, and I am assured that they have a continuing tradition of over a millennium.”

Song County is the result of a piece of research Kaye acted in 2022 on the impact of Covid on grassroots singing in Lancashire. It found that while they are a crucial part of the region’s cultural scene, 80% had lost members and 90% were looking to increase their numbers. Even more worrying is that almost a third of the groups said they were concerned about their future viability.

The report’s recommendations included a “recruitment toolkit” that groups could use to attract new members, a map to make it easier for people to find groups near them, and the creation of a community singing outreach function that would connect groups with networks and potential support.

At the time of writing, 116 choirs and other types of singing groups had been added to the online map on the Song County website, while 27 groups participated in events and received promotional support, working with partners such as Culturapedia, Lancaster Arts. , Encuentro Festival and LPM Danza.

Kaye says: “I think a lot of people are a little scared of the idea of ​​singing. It’s okay, you don’t necessarily have to sound like the people on TV, your own voice is fine.”

Many singing groups, including Preston Orpheus Choir, have gotten rid of auditions, meaning you don’t have to be of a certain level to join.

Daniel Adams, musical director of the choir, says: “Officially, we are what they call an oratorio choir, so we sing classical music, whether it’s Mozart’s Requiem or Mendelsohn’s Elijah. We would very much like to do a Messiah at some point. We are working on a Brahms Requiem for next year.

“I try to be as collaborative as possible, asking what our interpretation of the music will be as a group.”

In addition to the valuable experience of working together for a common goal, Daniel praises the benefits of singing for physical and mental health.

In Preston, there are several groups that have been created specifically to take advantage of this.

They include Memories and Melodies at Penwortham and The Alzheimer’s Society’s Singing for the brain program, which brings together people affected by dementia to sing songs they know and love.

Chris Lawson, the charity’s local services director for west and central Lancashire, says: “We find there is an element of wellbeing in being together with other people and singing, and being involved with music can bring about feelings of joy. .

“But we also know that people with dementia, especially when memory has been affected, many people rediscover elements of themselves because music engages different parts of the brain. Music appears to be stored differently as memories in the brain.

“We were often able to see people not only feeling uplifted by listening to songs again that they may not have heard for a while, but also speaking and communicating in a way that they perhaps weren’t outside of the music session.”

There is a waiting list for Singing for the Brain sessions, but Chris wants anyone affected by dementia to contact the Alzheimer’s Society for help.

He says: “Our dementia counseling service is a free method of support for people with dementia and carers, friends and family of people with dementia, based on providing informative advice.

“The core is everyday problem solving and strategies for living around or responding to that person’s dementia symptoms and how they are experiencing it.

“There are lots of really nice community groups and activities that are dementia friendly, but if you’re someone who would like to do more things for yourself, we can help you find ways to get involved with them too.”

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