Most of Vivamus’ singers have experience of singing in other choirs, whether formerly at school or university, or currently alongside their Vivamus singing. So we’re all very familiar with the concept of “choir black” – neat black clothes for concert performances. They’re not a uniform, and everyone can have their own clothes with slightly different styles. But generally, outfits must be neat, they must be warm (the venues with the best acoustics tend to get cold, after all) – and they must be black.

Why? Where has this tradition come from, that choirs always wear all black?

Reasons to wear black

This Classic FM blog about orchestras wearing black mentions that historically, all-male musical performers generally wore a black-tie tuxedo as a uniform. As women joined ensembles, the dress code evolved to include smart – but still black – dress for women. So in some ways, we wear all-black today because Western classical musical performers always have done.

But… why have they always done? The Classic FM blog goes on to suggest it’s about uniformity, and lack of distraction. If everyone is in similar, non-eye-catching clothes, it lets audiences focus solely on the music. No one is standing out, drawing undue attention.

Diversity through uniformity

So is it simply about making everyone look the same?

At Vivamus, we don’t think it’s quite as simple as that. We celebrate our singers’ diversity and differences. But we do believe wearing black clothes helps us all come together as one unit, one community, unified in one thing, the most important thing: our love of song.

This kind of uniformity isn’t about erasing differences – it’s about building a community. Our differences still shine through, from our heights and ages, to our sparkly accessories at Christmas. Plus, for more informal concerts, we don’t stick to the all-black rule (especially during the summer, when we’d melt).

So if you’re worried that wearing all-black is a bit boring or erases our differences, please don’t be. When it comes to concerts, we all need to come together – and putting on a “uniform” of sorts really helps us with this. Plus, no one will know if you accidentally spill a drink on yourself at the post-concert pub session…

We agree with the Classic FM blog, that our priority is always the music. If you agree, join us at our next concert.

Post written by Swéta Rana.