A new youth choir is to be established in Andover to get their confidence back after the pandemic.

Clare Oliver, the leader of Andover Ladies’ Choir, is aiming to establish a new youth group to target children of many ages to come together and sing. She hopes the group will give children a confidence they may have lost during Covid.

“I think it’s been harder for our children and young people than any other age group, and I want them to come together and try something new,” she said. “It could be really exciting, there’s so much we could do with it.

“I want us in The Lights, I want us to be around town doing things and even further afield if they get confident enough.”

Clare’s decision to set up this new choir came originally just before lockdown, when she was asked by a parent if she could set one up. However, following lockdown one, she said “it had to go on a very big shelf”.

“A month or two ago I decided to resurrect this because now, more than anything, children are being demoralised and have lost confidence in themselves and their abilities,” she said.

“They’ve lost the experience of working with other children, particularly in state schools, so I think learning a new skill and singing can be such a positive thing to do for mental health and wellbeing, so that’s why it’s going ahead.”

Clare said that it was especially need because Andover had previously had a youth choir, but that it had disappeared in the recent past.

“The pianist for the Andover Ladies Choir used to be a member when she was a child but there hasn’t been one for some time,” she said. “Many of the schools don’t have choirs and singing in assembly so it’s quite a gap.”

She said that she was worried for the future of choirs without children’s choirs, as the interest would not be there in future.

“I run an adult choir so I’m very aware if we don’t have children singing with other people and having a musical background, then where are the choirs of the future going to come from?” she asked.

Clare is to begin talking to all the schools in Andover and the surrounding villages in order to gage interest for the choir, as well as applying for a grant from the council. If she is successful, she plans to rehearse at Winton Community Academy on Monday evenings, with a Junior Section for Years 4-6 from 6pm-7pm and then a senior section from Years 7-11 from 7:15pm.