WOW What a weekend!

The BIG Sing Retreat was AMAZING!

Massive thank you to all who could join us for The BIG Sing Retreat – with our very special guest Eban Brown the former lead singer of The Stylistics. It was just AMAZING!

120 BIG Singers arrived on Friday, some got there early to use the pool, gym and steam room, others came later after work. But we all met for evening dinner and that’s when the excitement began. We had a BIG Quiz night organised by our very own Evie and Raj, that got us laughing and working together in teams. What a fun night!

Saturday after breakfast, our tutor Lucy led us in some country dancing for a great warm up, and our tutor Neresa woke our vocal chord’s up. Then the main mass workshop began and we got to hear the amazing vocals of Eban Brown singing our ‘Howardised’ Stylistics medley – the combination was emotional! WOW!

The choir did a great job learning the Stylistics medley – four classic songs – but we were ready for lunch before getting back to our second mass workshop in the afternoon. This time we learnt another Stylistics song called ‘Change is Good Sometimes’, a song chosen for us by Eban himself.  This song was only recorded for one album and they never performed it live. So we felt very honoured to sing it! Howard turned the room into a recording studio as we laid down our vocals – what a great experience!

Saturday night we were so blessed to have our own private concert by Eban – wow! We were so honoured! Then the choir members took over for our Celebrate You Showcase. Our tutor Sarah did a fab job of hosing the open mic, which saw over 40 BIG Singers performing. We were glowing with pride as we witnessed so many of our choir members stepping outside of their comfort zones and challenging themselves to sing. The support in the room was overwhelming – cheering one another on. We loved the spontaneous singing from Eban and our tutors – it was a truly special moment. We danced the night away until the early hours- we just didn’t want that party to end!

Sunday morning was a relaxed time – some went to swim, others took a walk around the beautiful grounds, some of us just got extra sleep! But we came together at 10:30am for a photoshoot and then had an inspirational session with Eban where we got to chat about his life, his experiences, his music and his career highlights. It was so great to get to know him even more. After lunch it was time to shoot our music video – that was GREAT FUN! Thankfully the sun shone and we got to shoot in various locations around the grounds with Eban. Now we are all music video stars.

We finished our Retreat together, it was emotional saying goodbye and nobody wanted it to end but what a fantastic time we’ve had. We are ONE! Thank you to all the retreat participants for making such special memories together.

To our choir members:  if you missed it then we missed YOU! But don’t worry… we will be making a BIG announcement on Wednesday and revealing all the details for next year’s retreat! So don’t miss your email! Here’s to The BIG Sing Retreat 2025!