Every year in early July we have a residential weekend in Hertfordshire where we learn new repertoire with our MD Ben Cox, and our accompanist Jonathan Taylor. It is a hugely enjoyable weekend in a beautiful venue. We have spaces for a few non-members. If you like our music, come and sing with us! Please contact us if you are interested.
About Take Twenty
We are a lively group of around 35 music enthusiasts who meet weekly in Camden, North London, to sing jazz in four to eight part harmony. The choir has been going for over 40 years, and still retains some of its original members.
We sing original and stylish arrangements of jazz standards, Latin, traditional, and popular tunes. We have an extensive repertoire of over 300 arrangements, mainly created in-house by members of the choir.
The choir has performed in a wide variety of venues and occasions, including theatres, art centres, jazz clubs, weddings, corporate events, private parties, churches and community events. Some of the more unusual situations have included King’s Cross station, Open Mic night at the Vortex Jazz Club and London Zoo.
There are plenty of highlights, including having performed at The Alternative Miss World Contest, a charity gala at The London Palladium, The Queen Elizabeth Hall, a residency on the Barbican foyer stage, The Royal Festival Hall, and The Marlborough Jazz Festival. We also took part in Orlando Gough’s inspiring choral works at the ENO and his multi-choral production for the bi-centenary celebrations at The National Portrait Gallery.
And we were Category Finalists in the 2010 BBC Choir Of The Year competition, held at the Birmingham Symphony Hall (listen to the excerpt on us from Radio 2 programme The Choir).
And why not watch some of our recordings on our YouTube channel (and listen to recordings on our media page), and judge for yourself?
Our 40th birthday celebrations have been postponed because of Covid, but we are planning our celebration in late autumn 2022. We will share many Take Twenty favourites from over the years.
If you are interested in singing with Take Twenty and would like to find out more about us, please contact us through our contact form. We are rehearsing in real life once again.
Photos: Take Twenty at Regents Park, summer 2019
Take Twenty’s lockdown video of Walk Between The Raindrops by Donald Fagen, arranged by Keith Abbs. Musical Director: Ben Cox. Piano: Jonathan Taylor.
And big thanks to Ben Cox for editing both sound and video.
You can watch more videos on Take Twenty’s YouTube channel.
And here’s another lockdown video by our MD Ben Cox, with Jack Mizzi; the beautiful A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square, arranged by Gene Puerling.