Male choir celebrates 20th birthday

This year marks the 20th anniversary for Male Voices Waikato, formally known as Cantamus Men's Choir, and some of the original members are still singing strong.

In the mid-90s, a group of men decided to form a choir thanks to musical director Anne Connolly. Connolly had been directing Cantamus Women's Choir before deciding to advertise for a male choir.

Vice president Graeme Burbery remembers when he saw the advertisement in the paper 20 years ago.

"There was an ad in the paper in February 1995 for 'men who want to sing' and I remember saying 'hey, that's a bit of me'."

The choir has met every Monday since they began singing together. They originally practiced at St Peter's Cathedral on Victoria St, which is where they will be performing for their 20th Jubilee.

From there they have moved to Hamilton Girls' High to Hamilton Boys' High and they currently practice at Glenview Club, still on a Monday. The all-male choir has always had around 20 members with different men coming and going.

"I think the boys would agree with me when I say we are not high brow. It's important to know that we don't require you to audition if you want to join," Graeme said.

They have travelled as a group to perform.

Every three years there used to be a National Choir Festival which ran from 1995 till 2004; the last one was in 2013.

"For these we travelled to Wanganui, Wellington, then we hosted, and then Auckland for the last one."

For the men of Male Voices Waikato, singing is about having fun and for Graeme it's a great way to be social.

"Because this year is the 20th anniversary we thought it's a good chance to lift the profile of the choir. We are putting our name out there and we are getting good reports back. People are saying the choir is sounding better than we have ever before. I think we have reached a pretty sound level now, given that we are amateur singers."

Graeme said their songs range "from serious to lighthearted".

The choir sings songs like Crazy Little Thing Called Love, to covers of The Beach Boys or The Beatles, Maori songs, classical numbers like Ave Maria, and show tunes like New York, New York and Putting on the Ritz. They also sing songs from around the world.

Last year, they learned a song called Kalinka from Russia. Singing in different languages is a challenge the choir enjoys.

To mark their milestone anniversary, Male Voices Waikato is planning on doing a number of different shows, than what they usually would.