I was recently asked to sing with a choir for one of their concerts. It was a paid role to help out an amateur choir. I was asked to sing a very small solo, but mostly I was being brought in was to help the tenor line with the chorus sections.
It can happen sometimes that a choir or orchestra needs additional resources, often to bring a bit of confidence to a section. I’m not sure if there’s a common term used in choirs for this. Some people call them bumpers, and some call them ringers.
The term ‘bumper’, I believe, come from the French Horn section of orchestras. It’s an additional player might be brought in to support the 1st horn player when they have a particularly demanding part to play. In this context they serve a very particular need, to allow the 1st horn to rest for the more virtuosic passages for a piece.
The term ‘ringer’ has a wider use, as it’s sometimes used (sometime pejoratively) for a paid addition to a sports team – but the term is often used in choirs and orchestras as well.
The choir I was helping out, like so many other choirs, only had a very small tenor line. They had good singers, but they needed a bit of help to feel confident singing out.
As a bumper for that section I came in just for the performance, and the warm-up rehearsal on the same day. I already knew one of the pieces, and was able to look over the rest of the music on my own the day before the concert.
My sight-reading skills are pretty good these days, but I wanted to come in prepared, so I checked over the music in advance and listened to a recording of the works.
And as it turns out the choir I was helping out were a lovely bunch of people, and made me feel very welcome. They were also very appreciative of the help I brought.