Many choirs are renaming their choirs to remove gender-based descriptors from their names. I applaud this trend as we all can do better at supporting our trans and gender-non-binary students as they wrestle with conformity in so many other aspects of their life. Women’s Ensemble, Men’s Glee Club, etc. – these can all be successfully avoided.
I see three main trends in renaming choirs.
- Voice-Part Specific. Instead of Men’s choir, “Tenor-Bass Choir” or “Low-Voice Choir”. Instead of Women’s Choir, “SA Choir” or “High-Voice Choir.” Our high school choirs renamed “Advanced Women’s Ensemble ” to “Advanced Treble Ensemble” and “Women’s Chorus” to “Treble Chorus.”
- Musical Name. A few popular examples: “Bel Canto”, “Chorale”, “Bella Voce”, “Vocalese”.
- School-Related Name. This is a name specific to your school mascot, town, etc. I named the tenor-bass multigenerational choir I conduct in the spring “RAMChoir” after the Rockford Rams. I think a school with North in the name would be “Borealis”, after the Northern Lights.
I’m morally opposed to pun-based group names, but perhaps you feel differently – if so, it might be possible to combine multiple categories above. One school can successfully use multiple of the above options in naming their choirs – my school district has choirs named using all three. Don’t feel like you have to only use one option in pursuing your choir renaming options.
There have been multiple active discussions in the “I’m A Choir Director” Facebook group about this topic, and I encourage you to look there for more ideas.