Lawrence Batley Theatre is so proud to support Song Geet, a choir for women of South Asian Heritage in Kirklees
Song Geet is a group of women of South Asian Heritage based in West Yorkshire. The choir meet weekly to sing songs from Bollywood and traditional folk songs in Urdu, Punjabi, Gujrati, Pashto and Bengali. Founded by Madiha Ansari, Song Geet aims to bring people together and celebrate similarities, rather than differences. This year they have been expanding and taking on new and incredible opportunities.
Singing collectively is known to improve mental and physical wellbeing and through the choir, the singers gain confidence and build friendships with likeminded people. Lawrence Batley Theatre in Huddersfield, supports the choir to achieve funding, to find new performance opportunities and provides free space for practice.
This year the choir has doubled in size, performed on the world stage at the coronation concert and made a genuine lasting impact on local women’s lives. One member said “I think this celebration of women’s voices in all their forms is the single most important and inspiring aspect of this group – especially as almost all women everywhere have a ton of obstacles to overcome just to get our voices heard. We were gifted with voices at birth, they are entirely natural, and we have the right to use them, especially to bring joy to ourselves and others. So, I loved it that whenever possible each woman was given a chance to tell her story or sing a solo – it was truly humbling to hear so many moving, personal stories and lovely voices. I kept wishing the whole world could hear them.”
Becky Dash, Chief Executive of Lawrence Batley Theatre, said: “Here at Lawrence Batley Theatre we are committed to making a difference to people’s everyday lives. This choir celebrates diverse talent from across our area and helps Huddersfield to be an amazing place to live. We are striving to be the creative heart of Huddersfield and this opportunity will give those who are often excluded the chance to come together in a welcoming space and explore heritage through music.”
