TUESDAY 21st January, the choir hosted a vocal workshop attracting 12 new faces.
Julie Aherne our talented and inspiring musical director put together a fun evening of rounds and chants interspersed with 2 songs we will be singing in the concert.
Everyone was fully engaged, and we made a fantastic sound together. While practising the rounds we experienced singing differing tunes at the same time, preparing the ground for singing in parts for the concert pieces.
By the end of the first half we were able to tackle Va pensiero, by Verdi – better known as the Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves. An operatic piece which, with Julie’s excellent explanations, we were able to tackle the words and annunciation reasonably well. Soon after learning the notes we sang the piece through and Julie pronounced our singing as really lovely. A fantastic feat for our newly formed group for the evening.
We repeated the same format for the second half and were able to finish the evening with a rousing rendition of Bring him home, from Les Miserables. Which everyone was very pleased with.
Mention must be made of several cakes which we happily enjoyed in the break and added to the special feel of the evening.
Our thanks to Julie for her hard work, Camilla with her expertise in accompanying us, the choir for making everyone so welcome (and bringing cakes providing tea and coffee), and of course our amazing guests who were brave enough to join a strange group of people and sing out loud! – Well done everyone!
A Postcript – 50% of our guests came back – and joined us.