Frequently Asked Questions

No prior knowledge needed! Cantabileans range in experience from "only sang in the shower when no one was home" to "has a degree in music". We welcome anyone with a love for music and a desire to learn.

Cantabile rehearses every Wednesday evening from 7:00pm until 8:45pm during the school term. We won't get grumpy if you have to miss a rehearsal sometimes, but the more consistently our members attend the better we sound! 

Our rehearsal venue is St Martin's Presbyterian Church on St Martin's Road with parking usually available on the street.

Let us know you're coming! Once you've sent us an email (so that our music librarian can put together your music) you'll be able to come along to our next rehearsal. You'll be looked after by one of our committee members to make sure you've got everything you need and know where to sit - if you're not sure of your voice type, we'll help you decide where to start off. 

For your very first rehearsal we'll give you a practice folder, but if you decide you'd like to sing with us as a member you'll want to bring along your own binder for your music. You'll need a pencil to mark down important bits of information on your music, and a water bottle.

Charlotte (our MD) and Charlotte (our accompanist) (yes there's two of them) will start us off at 7:00pm with warm-ups. These might look like vocal exercises, physical stretches, and breath work. 

Once we're warmed up and ready to sing, Charlotte will take us through our first piece of the evening. We usually try and sing through as much of the piece as we can before stopping to work on specific bits in our parts. This will repeat for another couple of songs before we take a break at roughly 8:00pm to hear any notices, go to the bathroom, and refill on water.

By the second half of the evening you'll have the idea - more pieces, more direction from Charlotte, and more singing! The rehearsal finishes around 8:45 pm (usually a little earlier), we put the chairs back where we found them, and wave goodbye until the next week.

Don't worry if you haven't got a clue on this first night - give it a couple of weeks and you'll wonder how you ever went a week without us :) 

Yes of course! You can join at any time, though you might find joining towards the end of the year a little more challenging than starting in the first half. 

Yes! We showcase our work at the end of every year in our final concert, and it's great to see our community coming together to support us. We also perform in Singfest, a public choir festival in Christchurch for anyone to listen for free along with lots of other local choirs.

Cantabile sometimes performs with other groups - in 2024 we teamed up with the Garden City Orchestra for a joint performance.

As part of our community outreach we sing a few times a year at rest homes, which is always a lot of fun!

Membership is $250 for the year - this covers things like our venue hire and the purchasing and printing of music, as well as paying a stipend to our accompanist and conductor for their expertise. 

Membership can be paid all at once or in installments as needed.