In 2009, all-female barbershop chorus The White Rosettes received a Choral Ambition grant from the BBC Performing Arts Fund to put on a masterclass event at Leeds College of Music. This year they’re doing it again, only this time they’re funding it themselves from the proceeds of selling their first album. Beth Daley tells us about the recording process.

“Everybody knows that funds are hard to come by – whether for your hobby, a charity or a business – and especially for arts organisations. As a singing group, fundraising is difficult. We’re effectively asking people to give us their hard-earned cash to perpetuate our hobby, which can be quite uncomfortable when there are so many great causes to support and so little spare money to go around. Last year we decided that we needed to give people something in return for their money and came up with the idea of making a CD. In March this year, we had it in our hands.



We needed to make the CD as cheaply as possible in order to make the maximum profit but, with the prestigious title of European Ladies Barbershop Champions and a national reputation in the barbershop world to uphold, we didn’t want to skimp on quality or professionalism. In the end, it came down to teamwork, hard work, and the ability to call in help from some great contacts.

The first task was to coordinate the diaries of sixty five chorus members and Musical Director (MD) Sally McLean, with long time friends of the chorus husband and wife team Andy and Christine Milner who had the equipment and expertise to look after the technical side of recording the album for us. We recorded the CD in our usual rehearsal space (a school gym) one weekend in November and just prayed for good weather. If it rained, the noise of the rain on the flat gym roof would have ruined the entire plan. Thankfully, and as usual whenever we spend all day inside singing, the weather outside was fine!

The weekend in question did not, however, go without a hitch. Our usually mobile and energetic MD arrived on crutches and wasn’t able to stand as long as she normally would. But with the hall booked and the technicians’ and chorus members’ diaries cleared for the whole weekend, there was no way some crutches were going to stop her. Perhaps it even helped the chorus, making us focus on getting things right in two or three takes, not four or five.



After each take, Sally and the music team gathered around the sound desk and listened back. If it wasn’t good enough -we’d do it again.



By Sunday afternoon, exhausted but happy, the tracks were all down. Now the hard work would really begin."