Damian has belonged to the With One Voice Ashburton choir since 2016. One of the songs he loves to sing with the choir is ‘I’m Gonna Reach My Heavenly Home Someday,’ because he gets to do a solo! Damian was unable to attend choir for a few weeks in the lead up to With One Voice Ashburton’s performance at the Surrey Hills Music Festival. Knowing how important this song was to Damian, the choir’s conductor Kym prepared the choir to sing Damian’s song anyway, just in case he made an appearance!
“On the day of the gig, we weren’t sure if Damian would be able to perform with us. So before we went on stage I said to the choir: ‘If Damian doesn’t make it we’ll skip past that song, but if he rocks up, then we’ll do it no matter where we are in the program.’”
Damian showed up a few minutes into the performance, and Kym and the choir were ready for him to do his solo!
“It was very fun – as I walked in, I sang my solo, and it was like I was the guest appearance! A special shout-out to Kym and everyone at Ashburton for waiting for me, as I was a few minutes late. It was very amazing, I thought I would miss it!”
“We then performed the song, he completely nailed the solo, and his joy was totally infectious. The audience absolutely loved it, as did the choir. You couldn’t have planned that moment to go any better, and to any better have encapsulated what these choirs are all about!”
We’re proud that our choirs are places where absolutely everyone can find their voice and feel included.
With the current cost of living crisis, many of our members are experiencing genuine financial strain but our doors remain open through our subsidised membership model for vulnerable people. Our community work is only possible through donations from supporters like you.