The King and Wood Mallesons choir or KWM choir has gone through many changes and transformations in the last four years.
In the early days it was called Stan’s Band, a tribute to the founder of SJ Berwin, Stanley J Berwin. Stan’s Band sang in their first choir competition at Christies in 2012 and have had a glittering musical career from then on in! In 2013, Stan’s Band became Sounds Just Brilliant, and there was no doubt about it as they won the Singingworks Choir Competition at St Johns Smith Square with a massively moving performance of The World in Union and Bring Him Home from Les Miserables. Here’s the proof…
In 2014 the choir was renamed Kings With Melodies, following their merger with KWM (King and Wood Mallesons), and they were delighted to win the coveted Singingworks Best Movers and Shakers Trophy at Cadogan Hall with their brilliant Jersey Boys mash-up!
Choir co-ordinator Gerry Thompson has sung with Kings With Melodies since the very beginning and says, “People have come and gone, but we have always enjoyed being a varied mix of people from across all departments in the firm… we have accomplished things we never imagined possible – singing in prestigious London venues including the Albert Hall, Cadogan Hall and St John’s Smith Square, performing on stage at the Young Vic, and winning the Singinworks Choir of the Year award in 2013. But most importantly the choir has provided the experience of vocal expression, an ideal counter-balance to the stresses and strains of life in a City law firm!”
“I love having an hour in my week where I can just SING and put down all my other roles and responsibilities,” says partner Jeremy Goldring. And that is why the Kings with Melodies choir is so important to its members. It provides a brief escape and outlet of creativity and freedom for all who attend.
Our fantastic musical director Darron Moore has sung with the Royal Opera House, Holland Park Opera, English Touring Opera and London Voices, among others. He has given over 200 performances as a soloist all over the world and is such an enthusiastic and inspiring musical leader. Our accompanist for the Legal Harmony competition is Emily Leather who has also taken many of our rehearsals. Emily has enjoyed a varied career as music director, repetiteur, nimateur and composer/arranger working in opera houses in both the US and UK.
Once again this year, whilst preparing for the Legal Harmony Competition, we have seen Kings With Melodies adapt after a new surge of ambition. If Mr Darwin had studied choirs, as well as animals, he would have found his theory holding good that those to survive are not the strongest but those that are most able to adapt.
Now as Kings With Mates, the choir has welcomed and embraced other lawyers from the Singingworks family and have thoroughly enjoyed preparing for the Legal Harmony competition on the 8th of October. The charity we are hoping to raise money for is the Macmillan Cancer Support, a charity very dear to our hearts. The Kings With Mates philosophy is ‘TOGETHER WE ARE BETTER’ and we have so loved joining together each week to rehearse our programme for this fantastic competition. Wish us luck!
Kings With Melodies next performance, just a week after the Legal Harmony Competition will be ‘Singingworks: Choral & Operatic Classics’ a ‘Come and Sing’ event as part of the Brandenburg Choral Festival at the St Clement Danes Church. They’d love you to join them! This is going to be a fantastic evening, giving audience members the opportunity to form a massed choir led by four soloists from the Royal Opera House Chorus. For tickets and more information as to how you can get involved please click here.
With still one competition to go Legal Harmony has already raised just under £11,000 for charity this year. Ten choirs have taken part in two Legal Harmony competitions in 2015 with Berwin Leighton Paisner and Higgs & Sons winning their respective competitions. In July HSBC celebrated their win in the augural Fiscal Harmony competition for the financial sector, where choirs from UBS, Deutsche Bank and Credit Suisse as well as HSBC took part. The competition on 8th October sees the Bar being represented at last. Choirs from 9 -12 Bell Yard, Essex Court Chambers, KWM, Linklaters, Taylor Wessing, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and FFW will be singing to raise money for their respective charities.
