Out of work? Join a choir!

Hat tip, A Cappella News:

Teichfischer, 31, lost her job in publishing two years ago.

“We thought if you bring people together who have the same situation, then things will be much easier to form a social network,” she says. “It’s really worked out.”

She and about three dozen others meet two mornings a week inside a lovely but neglected 19th century stone mansion that serves as an arts and community center.

Three quarters of the men and women in the choir are jobless, and half have been unemployed for more than five years. A few retirees have also joined.

Joining is voluntary and doesn’t affect members’ unemployment benefits, which in some cases are among the more generous in Europe. For many, the rehearsals provide the structure and human contact they miss from being on the job.