Category: Choir Updates

Thanks all for braving the cold to come to rehearsal last night. I hope that those who have been unwell are feeling better.

We spent our time running through the entire program, just tidying up a few little things. It sounded very good in places, a little ragged in a couple of spots, but I am confident that these will click into place on the night. If there is one overarching comment it is to think about expression more. Louder in the loud bits, quieter in the quiet bits please.

But overall, huge kudos to you all for the great efforts you have made to learn the pieces for the concert. Some are straightforward, others definitely not. You have obviously worked hard between rehearsals, and I know I have pushed you quite hard on Tuesday evenings. So now, it’s time to enjoy the fruits of your labours and sing for our friends and family.

Please read carefully Siobhan’s post on logistics, which she will be sending out in the next couple of days.

See you on Saturday evening!

Chris

Our final rehearsal before the concert, and our last rehearsal of 2022.

If you have any little bits of any piece that you are not 100% happy about, please bring that thought with you.

See you tomorrow.

Chris

Dear All

Reminder that we need to sell tickets for the concert on Saturday (£10 each). We ask that every choir member sells at least three tickets (including one for themselves). Sue Eustace deserves a special mention having sold 8 tickets already. Thank you Sue!!

If you are able to collect payment in advance all the better – please transfer money to the choir bank account, including your name and ‘tickets’ in the reference. Tickets may be bought on the door with either cash or card (with our new card machine!). 

Thank you!

to everyone who was a part of the Holly Lodge concert this evening, and that includes those that were able to be there and those who weren’t too – all of the effort and practice you have all put in paid off in beautiful fashion. I was right to assume that we didn’t need to rehearse the hymns, that you would sing those as needed, with power and expression and top As in the descants. The 3 choir festival of O Holy Night was perfect. Our role was really only to provide the base that the kids performed on, and we did that just right, you adapted to a very different tempo and the school children were brilliant and I think genuinely enjoyed singing with an adult choir. And then, when it came to your turn to sing two tricky, unaccompanied carols, you sang them better than you ever have before – in tune, with expression and drama (I will be working on my Herod face, apparently) and you fully deserved the applause and plaudits afterwards. I was already looking forward to Saturday 17th but now even more so.

Enjoy the weekend, c’mon the Ingerland, and see you on Tuesday.

Chris

I have a couple of tickets for a concert at King Place tomorrow, Fri 9th at 7:30. Agnes and I can’t make it, so if you would like them you’re most welcome, no charge.

The concert is: A Ceremony of Carols: Pembroke College & Anna Lapwood

They are e-tickets, which I can easily send to you. Just email me at here

David Corless

Thanks to those who were able to come and run through things with Sheen Mount choir. I think this is going to be a lovely event.

I know we have lost a couple of people to the bugs that are everywhere. I hope those stricken ill are feeling OK.

By my count we have 7 sops, 7 altos, 4 tenors and 5 basses. A perfect chamber choir!

I have printed off sheets that have all the ups and downs on them to help us know where we are meant to be. Our carols on stage, obviously. 3 of the hymns from the stage, 2 from the choir stalls.

See you this evening, or if you are not with us tonight, on Tuesday.

Chris

Hello all

Not a long one today, just a big Thank you to everyone who has worked so hard to get us to where we are. You sounded fantastic last night. Dark Night was a stand out, but everything you sang sounded performance-ready and genuinely impressive. I’m looking forward to Holly Lodge on Thursday – see a good number of you then – and then one last chance to brush everything up before our own concert.

Special thanks to Robert, Sarah, Tricia and Claire, our in-house soloists, and to all those who work behind the scenes, whether in picking the program, printing flyers, arranging the bar, getting the heating turned on or putting chairs out or loads of other things that have to happen to keep the choir running.

Any questions, please shout, otherwise stay warm and see you soon.

Chris

Hi all, our concerts are upon us! Tomorrow I would love to get through everything, but the priority is Dark Night as we have our violinist, Ellie, coming so this is our chance to hear it in its finished form and make sure that we are all together.

We also need to check over the pieces for Holly Lodge, and we have a couple of extra singers coming at the end of practice to sing through those pieces.

So, can I please ask that we try to be ready to start warm-up right at 7.45? And at 9.30, can I have an extra 10 minutes with the Holly Lodgers please, to sing through LLL and ItS one time each with just that group, and to confirm other music, logistics and getting on and off stage.

If you have a black folder, now would be the time to get your music in it and get used to singing from it. The program order was in the last post I sent.

I know how much extra practice has been going on in sectionals and on your own. Well done all, and thank you for that effort. I hope you have listened to the recordings that Lesley made last week – you genuinely sounded good last week. I am looking forward to hearing how fabulous everything sounds tomorrow. See you then.

Chris

COULD EVERYONE WHO HAS A COPY OF CAROLS FOR CHOIRS 1 (GREEN ONE) PLEASE BRING IT ON TUESDAY? For those singing on Thursday – might we please stay on for 10 minutes after 9.30 on Tuesday to go over logistics?

Thursday Dec 8:
For those who can make it we will be rehearsing with the children at 10am in CC. I expect it to take no more than an hour. Please do be there if you possibly can.
Doors open 7pm. Please be there no later than 7.15. We take our seats at 7.25. The concert starts at 7.30. It will last 2 hours.

Singers:
Could you please liaise with your section to confirm who is going to be there so that we have a final count for each part?

Concert running order:
Once in Royal David’s City – solo by Sheen Mount, verses 1,2,5,6 (descant)
Clarendon School choir
O Holy Night (all 3 choirs together)
Reading
While Shepherds Watched their Flocks
Reading
Sheen Mount School choir
Good King Wencelas – verses sung by upper/lower voices as traditional in book
Speech
INTERVAL
Sheen Gate Choir – In the Stillness & Lully, Lulla, Lullay
Reading
O Come All ye Faithful, verses 1,2,6 descant, 7 – born THAT happy morning in second line please!
Vocalist solos
Closing remarks
Hark! The Herald Angels, all verses, descant

Music to have with you:
The three carols from our Dec 17 program plus Carols for Choirs book 1. If you have the loose sheets it in a black folder so much the better, the books I think we just hold as books.

Seating:
We will be in the choir stalls when not singing. For everything except While Shepherds we will come out on to the dais (where we normally stand) to sing, so getting in and out with minimum fuss is important. If you arrive late, hang around to the side of the dais until we are next on stage and surreptiously join from the side then.

Dress:
Same as for our concert, black with red/green if you wish

Grandees:
The names on the programme, who may mean something to you, are: Adrian Mills, Jacki Piper, James Middlehurst, Weng Soon Tee and Tey Kamal.

After the splendid 2021 Christmas curry held in April, we are taking the radical step of holding the 2022 event at the unusual time of Christmas week.

Same venue – Black Salt Sheen. Address – 505-507 Upper Richmond Road West, East Sheen, London, SW14 7DE. Date and time – Tuesday December 20, 8pm.

As last time, feel free to come for a pre-dinner drink in the restaurant bar, from 7pm. We have the conservatory again booked, so that can take around 20 of us. Let me know if you wanna come – roger.blitz@ft.com. Santa hats semi-obligatory, tinsel – why not. Crackers – I should say so.