Where to sing and play gay in London

Search "gay choir London" and you get the Pink Singers, the London Gay Men's Chorus, and then noise. There are nine groups worth writing to this season: six choirs, an orchestra, a wind band and a big band, running from no audition and pay what you can to a Grade 8 minimum and a six-year queue. Who rehearses where, what getting in involves, and what it costs.

Pink Singers

Formed in 1983 for the Lesbian and Gay Pride march, Europe's longest-running LGBT+ choir by its own account, now 90 singers. Mixed voices, ages 18 to 75 plus, madrigals to gospel to show tunes, all memorised. Every Sunday, 2pm to 6pm, in central London, 70 per cent attendance minimum. Intake is twice a year and there is an audition: scales to place your voice, then an ear test and a memory test, nothing to prepare, no need to read music. They aim to run an open rehearsal or two each season first. Recommended donation around £30 a month, subsidised rate around £10, both figures dated 2021 on the site. Email joining@pinksingers.co.uk. Their pattern, in their own words, is two full concerts a year, winter in January and summer in July. The last one listed was 17 January 2026 at Cadogan Hall; nothing for autumn or for January 2027 had been posted when checked.

London Gay Men's Chorus

Began in 1991 with nine friends singing carols at Angel tube for the Terrence Higgins Trust. Now over 300 singing and non-singing members and Europe's largest gay male chorus. Four parts: first tenor, second tenor, baritone, bass. Every Monday, 7pm to 10pm, in Camden, plus one Saturday or Sunday a month, 11am to 5pm. No audition, but a Voice Assessment Evening once or twice a year to place your range. The catch is the queue. From first contact the chorus quotes one year for first tenors, two for basses, three for second tenors and six for baritones, with new singers admitted in January and August. Monthly subscription, amount confirmed on joining, reduced for low incomes. Email intake@lgmc.org.uk. Next shows: Christmas Cracker, Monday 7 December 2026 at Soho Theatre Walthamstow, E17 4QH, and Sound of Christmas, Tuesday 15 December at St Martin-in-the-Fields, WC2N 4JJ.

Diversity Choir

Mixed-voice chamber choir of around 50, Bach and Rachmaninov to ABBA and Sondheim. Wednesday nights in the City of London; the site gives neither time nor venue. A simple audition, arranged by emailing your voice type to membership@diversitychoir.co.uk, and the events page says they are recruiting. No fees are published. A new musical director takes over this month after Jan Rautio's ten years, in time for the winter concert on Saturday 12 December 2026 at St James Church, Holland Park.

The Fourth Choir

The chamber choir for advanced singers, founded September 2013. Around 50 members, half former choral scholars or professionals, about 36 on stage per concert and sometimes four to a part. A cappella, medieval to contemporary, with commissions from gay composers. Thursdays, 7pm to 9.30pm, in Lambeth. The autumn term started on 3 September 2026, the next intake is January 2027, and they particularly want sopranos and lower basses. The audition is the real thing: an unaccompanied solo of your choosing (aria, oratorio or art song, not musical theatre or pop), range exercises and sight reading, with Grade 5 reading and chamber choir experience expected. Over 18s. Membership is by voluntary donation. Register at thefourthchoir.com/join-us.html. Next concert: The Gloaming, Saturday 31 October 2026, 7pm to 9pm, at Heaven on Villiers Street, WC2N 6NG, with cellist Katherine Jenkinson under Jamie Powe. Standing, with a limited seated area if you ask.

London Trans Choir

Founded in 2017 by voice coach Stephen Davidson, London's first choir for trans, non-binary, intersex and gender non-conforming singers, and you sing in whatever register or part fits. No audition, and nobody asks you to prove anything. Every other Sunday morning at the Old Diorama Arts Centre, 201 Drummond Street, NW1 3FE, though the choir says it is hunting for a new space. The autumn open rehearsals are Sunday 13 and Sunday 27 September 2026, 10am to noon, free to £11.55 on Eventbrite. New members join in January and September. No membership fee is published. Each season ends with a Trans Talent Show; the last was 25 June 2026. Questions to londontranschoir@gmail.com.

Mixtape

For women and non-binary people. SHE Choir until 2023, in London since 2012. Pop, rock and R&B in the choir's own arrangements, taught by ear. No auditions, no joining fee, pay what you can towards the room (an average of £2.50 a week). Monday evenings in Aldgate, ground floor. The bad news, in their words: not taking new members right now. Join the waiting list on the site; intakes are once or twice a year and sometimes for one part, so say which you sing. info@mixtapechoir.co.uk.

London Gay Symphony Orchestra

Founded in 1996 by a group of friends led by Robin Gordon-Powell. Over 100 active members and five concerts a year. No auditions, but the bar is Grade 8 for wind and brass, Grade 7 with orchestral experience for strings, and wind and brass are generally full, so strings and the deps list are the realistic way in. Rehearsals run for the six weeks before each concert, three hours on Sunday evenings in central London, minimum four per concert. £40 per concert, discounts for students and low incomes. Form at lgso.org.uk/join; they do not reply, section leaders pick from the list. The 30th anniversary concert is Sunday 18 October 2026, 6.30pm, at Cadogan Hall, ending with Rachmaninoff's Third Symphony.

London Gay Symphonic Winds

The LGSO's sister band: around 50 woodwind, brass and percussion players, professionals to lapsed school players. Wind band classics through show tunes and video game music to disco. Three big concerts a year plus summer bandstands and the Pride march. No formal audition; a suggested minimum of around Grade 5 and a possible waiting list for your section. Monthly or annual subscription, amount not published, concessions available. The homepage lists vacancies in every section from piccolo to tuba. Thursday evenings in central London according to the Pride Bands Alliance listing, dated 2024; the band's own site does not say. Use the form at lgsw.org.uk/contactus with your instrument and rough level. Twentieth anniversary concert: Saturday 24 October 2026, 7.30pm, St John's Waterloo, SE1 8TY, free to £14.

London Gay Big Band

A twenty-piece jazz orchestra founded in summer 2011, mostly but not only LGBT players and singers, Britain's Got Talent semi-finalists in 2014. It publishes no rehearsal night, vacancies or audition process, so this one is an email first: info@londongaybigband.com. See them before you write: Glass Slippers and Sequins, with Ginger Johnson, Friday 18 December at the Clapham Grand, and Saturday 5 December in Oxford.

Also singing, harder to find

Rebelle Voices (LGBTQ+ women, trans and non-binary people; Mimosa House in Holborn, per Alternative Classical's round-up of 26 June 2025), F*Choir (60 voices, all genders, no auditions, founded 2017, wearefchoir@gmail.com), Lungs in Haggerston and Quavors in Earl's Court run mostly on Instagram, so this season's dates live there. Many Voices, the sing-for-fun group, retired in January 2025.

Which one

On stage by Christmas: the Trans Choir's open rehearsals this month, or the Winds if you play. A proper audition: the Fourth Choir in January. The LGMC: email today, because that six-year baritone queue starts the day you write.