As a member of Cardiff Trans Singers, I’m often seen in public singing with them. On 4th July 2026, I had the amazing experience of singing with seven other members of the choir, along with two other singers who joined us, where we sang along with a 32-piece orchestra. It was immense! It was one of the most fun experiences I have ever had as a singer with the choir, and I hope we get to do it again!

As you can probably imagine, the material was very different from what I was used to singing! 13 pieces were played by the orchestra and we sang along with six of them. As is usually the case, I sang the lowest notes in most of the songs, simply because the choir does not have many people who sing the lowest notes. We do not call the section “bass” as would be the case with most choirs (which of course have soprano, alto, tenor and bass sections); in our case we use the terms upper, middle 1, middle 2, and lower, to keep the terms gender neutral, although I personally consider that the SATB terms are already gender neutral.

There was one point, though, where I was called upon to sing a C♯ in the octave above middle C (C♯5), and to sustain that note for 11 beats! This came about because for one of our rehearsals we had no uppers, and I blurted out, “I can do that!” My suggestion was actually taken seriously and we ended up going with it!

The note had to start off loud, immediately get quiet, and then crescendo to loud again! You can perhaps imagine how scared I was of that note going wrong, and I was so proud and relieved that it came out in a pure, flutey head voice tone! (Imagine a countertenor’s sound and you’re probably not far off.) It did not do so consistently in rehearsals but I concluded that I had not warmed up my upper register properly, which was completed before the performance. That particular note would normally be assigned to sopranos, though it is only a semitone or half-step higher than the typical highest note of the alto range in choral repertoire. Regardless, I did it!

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