Engage in the Arts to Enhance Wellbeing and Longevity
This article comes to you from Solent Male Voice Choir
– which aims to increase membership to fifty in the coming months.
Yes, it’s official – scientific research involving extensive world-wide data collection has revealed that engaging with the arts promotes a feel-good factor supporting good health at all ages, being particularly valuable in the later years.
One of the top creative activities is making music – which includes singing.
Being a member of a choir that meets, say, once a week, preparing for performances several times a year, involves a high standard of self and group discipline, leading to great camaraderie and real happiness.
Physical demands requiring good poise and breath control, supported by the diaphragm correctly used, encourages overall fitness similar to that which you gain from sessions in a gym.
Singers are destined to live longer – maintaining younger brains, slowing their biological clocks, keeping memory sharp through constant refreshment, as well as strengthening the immune system and resistance to diseases, especially those associated with neural disorders.
The three neurotransmitters, dopamine, serotonin and endorphins, the so-called happy hormones, are summoned through singing, leaving choristers as high as kites after, for example, a full-length choral concert or a two-hour rehearsal.
Surf the internet for fuller explanations, far beyond the scope of this article – or read Art Cure: The Science of How the Arts Transform Our Health by Daisy Fancourt – January 2026 – Sunday Times Bestseller.
To return to the earlier assertion: singing is a truly wonderful way to enjoy life and live more healthily, both mentally and physically.
You may be thinking, ‘I want to join a choir – I’ll have some of that!’
Solent Male Voice Choir is a first-class destination for seasoned singers, as well as complete beginners – at the Pallant Centre, Havant – parking nearby – Tuesdays – doors open at 6.45pm – sing from 7.15pm to 9.30pm.
You are most welcome to come along to our choir practice which is held every Tuesday in The Pallant Hall, The Pallant Centre in Havant, PO9 1BE near Portsmouth in Hampshire, from 7.15pm to 9.30pm.
There is plenty of free parking adjacent to the hall. Visitors are always welcome. You don't have to be a singer.
You don't even have to sing! Why not come along on a Tuesday evening and just listen? Bring your wife, friend or partner too.
The Solent Male Voice Choir is a four-part choir established over 60 years ago by postmen in the sorting office. We currently have around 35 choir members and we sing for fun, singing in four to six concerts per year
You may be thinking "Can SMVC sing at our event?".
Well, yes, we probably can. We love it when other people organise an event and all we do is turn up and sing. It all depends on what, where and when.
