Lovely to see lots of friendly faces at the Inaugural Sheen Gate Choir Quiz Night last night. Congratulations to the Wrights, winning team thanks to an outstanding effort on the silly pictures round. For those who could not join, here is that set of questions for a giggle. Enjoy!
Hope we will be back and singing again soon.
Chris
Hi, we have just a handful of signer uppers so far for Wednesday night. Roll up, roll up! It’s about getting together, not worrying about whether you know the difference between Andante and Adagio.
One point – I had said 8pm to be in line with choir practice. But 7pm seems to work better for a few people, so we will be convening at 7 with eyes down around 7.15. You’ll be done and free to go on to your next virtual cocktail party by 8.15.
Please join us so we can see as many friendly faces as possible!
Chris
Dear all
How is everyone? I am sure that I am not alone in that I miss seeing and singing with the choir. The joy and spirituality of shared music is painfully absent from my life.
So, who’s on for a social and fun evening this week?
I am proposing that anyone who is free joins in on Wednesday May 6th at 8pm for a musical-themed quiz.
If we have enough participants, then we will put people into small teams, who will Zoom together, and answer my fiendish questions on WhatsApp.
Then we will convene (Zoom again) at the conclusion to reveal the winners and, bandwidth-permitting, have a chance to remind ourselves of what our fellow singers look like.
Who’s interested? Replies to my email, please. Chris.hawkins2015@yahoo.com
Hope to see you on Wednesday. Best wishes to all.
Chris
Hi all,
And now for something completely different . . . I wonder whether any of you would be interested in coming along to this workshop that I and a number of friends are attending. It will be different but interesting and fun and the organisers are clear you don’t have to be Jewish or indeed have sung anything in Hebrew or Yiddish before, everything will be transliterated.
Anton
Singers invited to sign up to Jewish cultural choral workshop
Singers in Richmond borough are invited to join a special choral workshop, celebrating Jewish musical culture led by world-famous choir director, Polina Shepherd.
“On Sunday 2 February 2020, singers are invited to join Polina Shepherd, one of the world’s most charismatic and inspiring Jewish choir directors. Throughout the day, attendees will learn a wide range of material, ranging from sacred and secular, traditional and modern, in both Hebrew and Yiddish. No knowledge of the languages is necessary.
Polina’s choral workshops showcase her specially developed choral teaching methods, which are based on specific East European sound, ornamentation and modal experimentation with attention to stylistic details, history and context.
Following the workshop, singers will present, that evening, a performance at the Landmark Arts Centre in Teddington. The concert will also feature Merlin Shepherd, one of the world’s leading players of traditional East European Klezmer Clarinet.”
To book your place on the workshop and the concert in the evening, contact the Landmark Arts Centre on 020 8911 7558 or email education@landmarkartscentre.org. Tickets cost £20.
More details on this Richmond Council web page: https://www.richmond.gov.uk/council/news/press_office/older_news/press_releases_december_2019/singers_invited_to_sign_up_to_jewish_cultural_choral_workshop
Dear all
At tonight’s rehearsal we are going to try out a new way of arranging where the various parts sit. Lots of choirs use a block approach, where each part is arrayed from front row to back, like the segments of a tangerine, rather than our system of upper parts at the front, lower parts at the back. The proposal is to try that alternate arrangement out.
This will mean that many of us are going to be asked to sit somewhere unfamiliar and you may lose the regular person beside you with whom you have a singing bond. Please do your best to put up with the change, enjoy making new friends, and let’s see if it doesn’t improve the sound we project out into the audience.
The image below lays out in rough terms how Dave would like to set us out for concert purposes. The reality will necessarily be slightly different as numbers dictate. But broadly, looking at the choir from the audience, we are SBTA from left to right, with 1sts in the front rows and 2nds in the back two rows. Obviously THS is an open space, but it would be sensible for us to try to replicate this layout in rehearsals so that performances are not a sudden change.
See you tonight – and if you can be there a few minutes early, that would help make sure we are not still moving chairs and people around at 7.45 when we want to start singing.
Thanks very much
Greetings all
I have 45 lovely springback folders ready for collection from 7pm tomorrow. Please have £7.50 in cash – correct change appreciated.
The new folders do not have plastic inserts. (We can all feel proud about taking action on plastics!). If you are organised and get your music into order before Tuesday, you can simply drop your music into the folder and you’re ready to go. (I have copied the order of the concert below to help you out.) By way of a tutorial, watch this video of some young people using a Springback Binder.
Regarding the Britten choral dances – Simon has rented copies for the choir as we need to have copyright-paid music for the concert. You can use these, but you can only mark them in pencil and markings have to be rubbed out afterwards. If you prefer, you can simply use the photocopies you have used and marked over the rehearsals, and your official copy will just sit in a pew.
See you on Tuesday
Stephanie
Greetings all
Just a reminder that I will have 45 lovely folders ready for collection next Tuesday. I plan to get to the church around 7.00pm to give you time to collect, hand over the cash and still be ready to start singing at 7.45pm.
Please bring along £7.50 in cash. Usual rule applies – no cash no folder – so that I can balance the books for our treasurer.
Thanks!
Stephanie
As Camilla mentioned tonight, can you please use the link below to respond to a very short survey so that numbers for each part and a seating plan can be laid out. Thanks
