gay – We have fallen into the place where everything is music

GLOW choir Brighton is a Non-Audition, Natural Voice Community Choir for LGBTQIA+ people & Allies. GLOW Brighton is 10 years old in 2025! Bringing LGBTQIA+ people together in a cappella harmony, community & solidarity since January 2015!

GLOW is still going strong, creating meaningful, nourishing community music experiences for the queer community, despite the challenges of the pandemic years, increasing hostility towards LGBTQIA+ people & being a disabled-led choir. GLOW aims to keep bringing LGBTQIA+ people together in experiences that bring uplift, joy, relief, strength and release, and create life-affirming community bonds.

Warmth, integrity & queer community spirit can be found at GLOW, & a relaxed atmosphere of learning, growing & GLOWing together. GLOW Brighton has strong emphasis on inclusive practice, welcoming & celebrating all under the LGBTQIA+ umbrella; with particular attention to positive experiences for queer voices that are sidelined in some spaces, such as trans, non-binary, bisexual, pansexual, neurodivergent, disabled & other minoritised voices. GLOW has an active Anti Racism & Cultural Honouring commitment (thanks to ARCH work from the Natural Voice Network ARCH team) which influences ongoing practice & remunerations.

GLOW is about community, queer joy, a friendly welcoming space where you can be more of yourself, helping people feel empowered and connected through song, and making space for LGBTQIA+ people to gather and connect in solidarity and through music. All voices are welcome at GLOW Choir: no auditions, just an encouraging space to learn & have fun doing so. People & their voices are greeted with a warm welcome, & celebratory, encouraging, patient teaching & facilitation that helps everyone feel welcome to sing with GLOW.

GLOW sings a wide range of a cappella songs from across time & space, many moods & genres. Songs to speak to the times, to soothe & uplift the heart, to bring change, to delight the mind, or to rest into like a sonic hug.

GLOW Brighton is led by widely experienced & trained song leader & trans voice alteration coach, Hannah-Rose Tristram, who has been working with voice, choirs & embodied arts, most of their life, including some life changing experiences with Northern/Village Harmony, & is passionate about creating space for LGBTQIA+ people to enjoy the benefits of singing together in a nourishing & welcoming environment.

Hannah-Rose was inspired to start GLOW choir Brighton, in great part by their experiences with GLOW Unicorn at Unicorn Voice Camps. Thank you GLOW elders, leaders & folks who inspire, & who gave permission to use the GLOW acronym. Particularly thinking of the wonderful Jules Gibb & the late great Michael Harper.

GLOW Brighton was co-founded in 2015 by Hannah-Rose and the brilliant Kirsty Martin (who also introduced Hannah-Rose to the Natural Voice Network about 20 years ago, thank you Kirsty!). GLOW started in a maths classroom at BHASVIC College, & soon graduated to more acoustically delightful & varied spaces. Hannah-Rose has led & run GLOW themself for most of the past decade, through all kinds of ‘weathers’, bringing queer voices together at St Luke’s Church, local parks, zoom, queer venues & events, & this year a great highlight, performing at Trans Pride Brighton.

GLOW choir community has had the honour of singing at the weddings of couples who met at GLOW over the past decade: a great joy; & has moved through times of great sadness or grief together too.

Long may queer community spirit lift us up to keep taking care of each other and fighting for our rights, with compassion and strength, and keep moving forward in song and solidarity in these times that, for our community, present great challenges.

In the words of Marsha P Johnson, “You never completely have your rights, one person, until you have all your rights… No pride for some of us without liberation for all of us.”

And in the words of Stormé DeLarverie at the Stonewall uprising/rebellion, “WHY DON’T YOU DO SOMETHING?!” Words that echo in these troubled times.

And as Harvey Milk said: “Hope will never be silent.”

To hear some of these words in song form, listen to ‘Revolution’ in the links below.

Youtube Videos of our performances at Trans Pride Brighton 2025:

Revolution by Hannah-Rose Tristram: