about us
Sitting Room Singers is a group of around 30 people from all walks of life who enjoy singing and socialising in a creative and supportive environment.
Our song selection is diverse – we sing many genres such as jazz, pop, oldies, ballads, madrigals and more…. All under the guidance of our Musical Director, Rachel Young.
We practice on Monday evenings from 7 – 9pm in Epsom, Auckland throughout the year.
Our MD – Rachel Young
We are privileged to be conducted by the wonderful Rachel Young who started with us in 2024…
BIO: After studying piano at Auckland University, Rachel followed her sense of adventure to Hungary, where she did her post-graduate in performance piano at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music, Budapest. After returning to NZ, Rachel trained as a secondary teacher, while continuing to teach piano. She has worked in various schools across Auckland teaching music and conducting choirs.
As well as Sitting Room Singers, Rachel also directs choirs at various schools and also enjoys singing with Voices New Zealand Chamber Choir and Viva Voce NZ.
what’s in a name?
Well, quite a lot for us, in fact!
The name of our choir, the Sitting Room Singers (affectionately acronymised SRS), encompasses the story of how we came into being back in 2020, after multiple lockdowns and COVID scares temporarily silenced our singing and left us bereft.
Being a bunch of fun, quirky folk with a shared a cappella singing history, we were desperate for an opportunity to re-connect, re-invent ourselves and make wonderful music again. A significant birthday celebration for one of our members gave us an excuse to gather for six weeks of rehearsals in said member’s family ‘sitting room’.
Without a musical director, talent and skills were collaboratively pooled, reprising some of our best-loved repertoire in an inaugural birthday performance. The sheer joy of harmonising once more, both in voice and spirit, was the inspiration to continue together. The name somehow stuck and has come to embody our sense of family, with performances staged as our ‘sitting room’, into which we welcome our ‘guests’.
We love tackling a diverse repertoire, singing everything from jazz standards to madrigals, offering choral challenges while always aiming to connect with, entertain and move our audience. We’ve even been lucky enough to have two new compositions by Kiwi composers gifted to us to perform.
While our group is relatively young, we reflect a diverse demographic and experienced musicianship. We’ve been fortunate to have the expertise of three musical directors in our short history, each of whom has taken us to a new level and accommodated our less traditional rehearsal style, where members are relaxed and free to share ideas, enjoying the process while striving for excellence, listening, blending and absolutely loving being able to sing (and laugh) together. We hope this is reflected in every performance we share.
The Māori whakatauki ‘he waka eke noa’ (we are all in this together) embodies the ethos of the Sitting Room Singers. Indeed – there is, in fact, a lot in a name.