Stay at Home Choir partners with Koor to deliver a global Christmas Celebration

The collaboration will enable singers to work with John Rutter and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra to prepare for a virtual performance, featuring Star Carol and Hark The Herald Angels Sing

The Stay At Home Choir is a global community of more than 16,500 music lovers and artists. They have partnered with Koor, a free app that helps choral singers learn, improve and enjoy singing, to deliver their virtual Christmas celebration this year.

The collaboration will enable singers to work with John Rutter and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra on the run-up to a virtual performance, featuring the Christmas classic Star Carol and a roof-raising rendition of Hark The Herald Angels Sing.

Simon Capet, founder and CEO of Koor comments, “We’re so proud to be supporting the formation of virtual choirs across the world to enable musicians to come together to celebrate, discover and sing short pieces of music while physical rehearsals are not possible.

“Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without John Rutter and, now singers across the nation can work with him directly through this exciting collaboration with the Stay at Home Choir.”

Those participating in the festive edition of Stay at Home Choir will be able to learn about the music from John Rutter himself, rehearse with world-class singers and workshop leaders, as well as build their technique and confidence.

Through a variety of events suited to multiple time zones, participants will also receive support with their recording and singing technique as well as direct access to socials with their 16,500-strong singer community.

Formed since lockdown, the Stay at Home Choir has become known for its vibrant webinar rehearsals, whose places often fill in as little as three minutes. They have welcomed thousands of singers from 75 countries through their Zoom ‘virtual doors’ for the Stay At Home Choir process, where members can meet and rehearse with featured artists such as The Swingles, VOCES8, The Sixteen and the King’s Singers.

Koor is a progressive web app, that enables choral singers who have trouble reading music to learn their parts by interacting with high-quality recordings of professional singers and improve their vocal technique by interacting with personalised online guidance driven by machine learning-based algorithms.

The app allows choral singers to practice with pitch-perfect professional singers, so they can either have them as an accompaniment or learn from them to get their singing just right, using their pitch, rhythm, and correct pronunciation; how to shape vowels and phrases, and where to breathe. In the settings, users can also turn off certain voices or change the volume, allowing them to take anyone’s place, and practice however they wish.

Registration costs £15.99 per member and includes access to all events, resources (including rehearsal tracks on https://about.koor.app/) and scores. Subscription to Koor is free of charge.