Author: Siobhan Jones

Dear All Rehearsal on 18th Nov will be at St Mary the Virgin Mortlake (see below); As promised we had a good go at Brahms An Die Heimat covering pages 26-32 (the first 5 to H) and delighting Neavan with our evident, excellent preparation. (Keep it up!) We also ran through Chilcott’s Wish you a Merry Christmas and Riches Everlastingly,…… Read more →

Dear All We concentrated on 12 Days of Christmas this week. Keep eyes on Neavan! Timing is tricky for this piece, look up particularly for the 5 Days sections and final 12 Days. We will be looking at Brahms An Die Heimat next week – after which we’ll have run through all the music for the concert. If you can…… Read more →

Dear All Reminder: no rehearsal tonight 28/10 as it’s half term. Next rehearsal 4th Nov. Last week we looked at O Radiant Dawn (watch Neavan during coda!) and had a thorough work through of Stars. If you have time over half term do listen to Brahms An die Heimat (practice tracks available on repertoire page link here) & Chilcott’s 12…… Read more →

Dear All Apologies for the tardy rehearsal recap. We focussed on just one piece last Tuesday – Cradle Hymn. That wasn’t Neavan’s original plan but we were making such good progress on it that he stuck with it and was very happy with the final results! This week (21/10) is the last rehearsal before half term week. Half term break…… Read more →

Dear All An excellent effort by all at Tuesday’s pretty tricky rehearsal. Neavan is very happy with how we’re doing (we’ll definitely be doing those unaccompanied pieces unaccompanied!) and his only request for preparation remains at listening to the pieces while following the music where possible. Music looked at on Tuesday: Cradle Hymn Where Riches is Everlastingly:  timing critical –…… Read more →

Dear All Just a quick recap of last week’s rehearsal (apologies if some of it’s been lost in translation!): Twelve Day of Christmas: focus on p25- end  O Radiant Dawn Stars (first page) Looked at so far: O Radiant Dawn (all) Where Riches Everlastingly (all) The Rose (all) Cradle Hymn (p1-5) 12 Days of Christmas (first 5 pages, plus 15-end)…… Read more →

Dear All Well done everyone for an excellent rehearsal on Tuesday. Neavan’s certainly keeping us on our toes, but making it great fun too (his top priority for our rehearsals!). It’s lovely to be joined by all the new members. Don’t be put off by the pace, it’s new for us old members too – we’ll all get there in…… Read more →

See below list of recordings compiled by Neavan for this term’s programme. The Cradle Hymn has no good YouTube recordings of the mixed voices version, so the YouTube link is to a very good upper voices version, with a Spotify link to a good mixed-voice version to those that can access it. Stars: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rpmPGKyWPVs Twelve Days of Christmas: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OhF4Zg0s02w Where Riches: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZ9L04LJjAM An…… Read more →

Dear All What a fabulous first rehearsal with Neavan on Tuesday.  I hope everyone enjoyed it as much as I did (judging by the feedback the answer is a resounding yes). For those who couldn’t make it this week, we sung an extract from several of the pieces in this term’s programme, giving us a feel for each. Neavan plans…… Read more →

Dear All Looking forward to seeing you at our first rehearsal tomorrow.  By popular demand we’re going to kick-off with our usual pre-rehearsal drink in Christchurch so please bring along the beverage of your choice and get there as early as you can (I’ll be unlocking at 19:30). There’ll also be the chance to stay on afterwards for anyone who…… Read more →