Category: Choir Updates

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 find time practice tracks (super helpful!) may be found on the Repertoire page link here.

Spread the word for our concert Sun 6pm 14/12 at Christchurch. Flyer will be available soon. 

Note, for one week only- 18th Nov, rehearsal will be at St Mary the Virgin Church in Mortlake as Christchurch will be shut for electrical work. Directions will be in next week’s post.

Music Order for Summer Concert  (4th July 2026):

We will be singing Karl Jenkins The Armed Man for our Summer Concert. 

If you’d like to be included in the bulk order we’ll be placing please email me on Siobhan.waswood@icloud.com

Scores will cost £16.99 (link to score we’ll be using here) 

2 Local Concerts:

You may be interested in 2 local concerts put on by people with links to the choir:

The Telling, Sat 8th Nov, St Mary Magdalene Richmond

Link to tickets and information here

Directed by the brother of Simon Renton from the basses

Violin & Piano Concert, FRIDAY 21st Nov, Christchurch

Link to flyer here

Organised by a friend of David Corless from the tenors.

Choir Social – Tue 16th Dec:

Will be in The Hare and Hounds, East Sheen on Tuesday evening 16th Dec. Booked from 18:30 til late – get there anytime you can. Thank you to Barbara for organising!

Programme for Autumn Term:

 James MacMillan – O Radiant Dawn 

Bob Chilcott – Where Riches is Everlastingly 

Ole Gjeilo – The Rose 

Bob Chilcott – The Twelve Days of Christmas 

Kim Andre Arnesen – Cradle Hymn 

Bob Chilcott – We Wish you a Merry Christmas 

Brahms – An die Heimat 

​Benedict Landauer – Stars

Links for online purchase and pdfs for all scores may be found on the Repertoire page link here

Subs:

Subs will remain at £90 this term – payment details below:

£90/term to be paid into choir bank account – please put your name and ’subs’ as reference:

Account Name: Sheen Gate Choir

Account Number: 47107324

Sort: 60-01-39

Working Term Dates – Autumn​ Term2025:

16 Sep – 9 Dec except 1 week half term 28 Oct 

Holly Lodge Concert: Thursday 4th December

Concert Date: Sunday 14th December 

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 Days of Christmas. We’ll be revisiting them after half term.

Looked at so far:

O Radiant Dawn (all)

Where Riches Everlastingly (all)

The Rose (all)

Cradle Hymn (all)

12 Days of Christmas (first 5 pages, plus 15-end)

An die Heimat (p26-29)

We Wish you a Merry Christmas (first 5 pages)

Stars (all)

Thank you for all the subs and music payments so far received. If you haven’t paid subs yet please do so now (ref: name & subs)! Music payments to be made to choir bank account as well (ref: name & scores). 

Programme for Autumn Term:

 James MacMillan – O Radiant Dawn 

Bob Chilcott – Where Riches is Everlastingly 

Ole Gjeilo – The Rose 

Bob Chilcott – The Twelve Days of Christmas 

Kim Andre Arnesen – Cradle Hymn 

Bob Chilcott – We Wish you a Merry Christmas 

Brahms – An die Heimat 

​Benedict Landauer – Stars

Links for online purchase and pdfs for all scores may be found on the Repertoire page link here

Subs:

Subs will remain at £90 this term – payment details below:

£90/term to be paid into choir bank account – please put your name and ’subs’ as reference:

Account Name: Sheen Gate Choir

Account Number: 47107324

Sort: 60-01-39

Working Term Dates – Autumn​ Term2025:

16 Sep – 9 Dec except 1 week half term 28 Oct 

Holly Lodge Concert: Thursday 4th December

Concert Date: Sunday 14th December 

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 is Tue 28/10 and first rehearsal after half term will be Tue 4/11.

Looked at so far:

O Radiant Dawn (all)

Where Riches Everlastingly (all)

The Rose (all)

Cradle Hymn (all)

12 Days of Christmas (first 5 pages, plus 15-end)

An die Heimat (p26-29)

We Wish you a Merry Christmas (first 5 pages)

Thank you for all the subs and music payments so far received. If you haven’t paid subs yet please do so now (ref: name & subs)! Music payments to be made to choir bank account as well (ref: name & scores). 

Programme for Autumn Term:

 James MacMillan – O Radiant Dawn 

Bob Chilcott – Where Riches is Everlastingly 

Ole Gjeilo – The Rose 

Bob Chilcott – The Twelve Days of Christmas 

Kim Andre Arnesen – Cradle Hymn 

Bob Chilcott – We Wish you a Merry Christmas 

Brahms – An die Heimat 

​Benedict Landauer – Stars

Links for online purchase and pdfs for all scores may be found on the Repertoire page link here

Subs:

Subs will remain at £90 this term – payment details below:

£90/term to be paid into choir bank account – please put your name and ’subs’ as reference:

Account Name: Sheen Gate Choir

Account Number: 47107324

Sort: 60-01-39

Working Term Dates – Autumn​ Term2025:

16 Sep – 9 Dec except 1 week half term 28 Oct 

Holly Lodge Concert: Thursday 4th December

Concert Date: Sunday 14th December 

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 – aim to look at Neavan as much as possible

Stars: this was the particularly tricky one, but really came together by the end.

Looked at so far:

O Radiant Dawn (all)

Where Riches Everlastingly (all)

The Rose (all)

Cradle Hymn (all)

12 Days of Christmas (first 5 pages, plus 15-end)

An die Heimat (p26-29)

We Wish you a Merry Christmas (first 5 pages)

Thank you for all the subs and music payments so far received. If you haven’t paid subs yet please do so now (ref: name & subs)! Music payments to be made to choir bank account as well (ref: name & scores). 

Programme for Autumn Term:

 James MacMillan – O Radiant Dawn 

Bob Chilcott – Where Riches is Everlastingly 

Ole Gjeilo – The Rose 

Bob Chilcott – The Twelve Days of Christmas 

Kim Andre Arnesen – Cradle Hymn 

Bob Chilcott – We Wish you a Merry Christmas 

Brahms – An die Heimat 

​Benedict Landauer – Stars

Links for online purchase and pdfs for all scores may be found on the Repertoire page link here

Subs:

Subs will remain at £90 this term – payment details below:

£90/term to be paid into choir bank account – please put your name and ’subs’ as reference:

Account Name: Sheen Gate Choir

Account Number: 47107324

Sort: 60-01-39

Working Term Dates – Autumn​ Term2025:

16 Sep – 9 Dec except 1 week half term 28 Oct 

Holly Lodge Concert: Thursday 4th December

Concert Date: Sunday 14th December 

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)

An die Heimat (p26-29)

We Wish you a Merry Christmas (first 5 pages)

Stars (first page)

Thank you for all the subs and music payments so far received. If you haven’t paid subs yet please do so now (ref: name & subs)! Music payments to be made to choir bank account as well (ref: name & scores). 

See you all on Tuesday 7/10

Programme for Autumn Term:

 James MacMillan – O Radiant Dawn 

Bob Chilcott – Where Riches is Everlastingly 

Ole Gjeilo – The Rose 

Bob Chilcott – The Twelve Days of Christmas 

Kim Andre Arnesen – Cradle Hymn 

Bob Chilcott – We Wish you a Merry Christmas 

Brahms – An die Heimat 

​Benedict Landauer – Stars

Links for online purchase and pdfs for all scores may be found on the Repertoire page 

Subs:

Subs will remain at £90 this term – payment details below:

£90/term to be paid into choir bank account – please put your name and ’subs’ as reference:

Account Name: Sheen Gate Choir

Account Number: 47107324

Sort: 60-01-39

Working Term Dates – Autumn​ Term2025:

16 Sep – 9 Dec except 1 week half term 28 Oct 

Holly Lodge Concert: Thursday 4th December

Concert Date: Sunday 14th December 

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 the end.

Neavan has again asked us to prep for next week by listening to all the pieces while following the music.

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 15-25)

An die Heimat (p26-29)

We Wish you a Merry Christmas (first 5 pages)

More score will be handed out on Tues 30/9 so everyone will have purchased scores for: 

Radiant Dawn, 

Riches Everlastingly

12 Days

The Rose

We have yet to receive Cradle Hymn so please print this one off as well as the other 3 pdfs:

An die Heimat

Wish you Merry Christmas

Stars

Programme for Autumn Term:

 James MacMillan – O Radiant Dawn 

Bob Chilcott – Where Riches is Everlastingly 

Ole Gjeilo – The Rose 

Bob Chilcott – The Twelve Days of Christmas 

Kim Andre Arnesen – Cradle Hymn 

Bob Chilcott – We Wish you a Merry Christmas 

Brahms – An die Heimat 

​Benedict Landauer – Stars

Links for online purchase and pdfs for all scores may be found on the Repertoire page 

Subs:

Subs will remain at £90 this term – payment details below:

£90/term to be paid into choir bank account – please put your name and ’subs’ as reference:

Account Name: Sheen Gate Choir

Account Number: 47107324

Sort: 60-01-39

Working Term Dates – Autumn​ Term2025:

16 Sep – 9 Dec except 1 week half term 28 Oct 

Holly Lodge Concert: Thursday 4th December

Concert Date: Sunday 14th December 

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 Die Heimat: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRpJ7l-qXT0

O Radiant Dawn: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gGOo7e_Eosc

We Wish you: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FgMSVXeqOeg

The Rose: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ph44oJ7WpGU

Cradle Hymn: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F003sSzpwS0 (NOTE This is an upper voices version as there are no good YouTube recordings of the mixed choir version, which we are doing. Those with Spotify can listen to a good recording of the mixed version here: https://open.spotify.com/track/4KvLoj6DGFUq08aW44l916?si=1b7addc7c1b44c43)

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 to build on this next week so there are no instructions for specific areas to prep for.

HOWEVER, he has asked that people listen to each piece, ideally while following the music. I have added links to recordings on Repertoire Page (under Music and Media tab). Neavan will also be sending a playlist. There are rumours Lesley might be bringing her drum to rehearsal at some point…

This week we looked at:

O Radiant Dawn

Where Riches Everlastingly (first 4 pages)

12 Days of Christmas (first 5 pages)

We Wish you a Merry Christmas (first 5 pages)

The Rose (full run through)

There are scans of all the scores available while we await deliveries of music orders. Please go to Repertoire Page  where you will find downloadable pdfs of scores, plus practice tracks for Brahms ‘A die Heimat’ and Gjeilo ‘The Rose’. 

Please ensure you bring all scores to next week’s rehearsal including either printed or readable electronic versions of those for which we have not received delivery.

Remember to pay subs (details below) and please make payment for scores into same bank account putting your name as reference and “scores”. Amount payable for scores is shown below.

Programme for Autumn Term:

 Links for online purchase (pdfs also available on repertoire page):

James MacMillan – O Radiant Dawn  £3.25

Bob Chilcott – Where Riches is Everlastingly  £3.25

Bob Chilcott – The Twelve Days of Christmas £9.95

Kim Andre Arnesen – Cradle Hymn £4.60

Ole Gjeilo – The Rose £3.25

Total with Rose – £24.30

Total without Rose – £21.05

3 pdfs:
*Brahms – An die Heimat 

*Benedict Landauer – Stars

*Bob Chilcott – We Wish you a Merry Christmas

Subs:

Subs will remain at £90 this term – payment details below:

£90/term to be paid into choir bank account – please put your name and ’subs’ as reference:

Account Name: Sheen Gate Choir

Account Number: 47107324

Sort: 60-01-39

Working Term Dates – Autumn​ Term2025:

16 Sep – 9 Dec except 1 week half term 28 Oct 

Holly Lodge Concert: Thursday 4th December

Concert Date: Sunday 14th December 

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 wants to.

If you missed the music order you can purchase music yourself via links below. Please print off and bring to rehearsal the three pieces with links to pdfs (see below) as well as The Rose if you have a copy. 

Our first rehearsal of the new term will be tomorrow, Tuesday 16th September, 19:45 -21:30 at Christchurch, East Sheen SW14 7AW. 

Programme for Autumn Term – print off 3 pieces with asterisk and bring to first rehearsal: 

 Links for online purchase:

James MacMillan – O Radiant Dawn  £3.25

Bob Chilcott – Where Riches is Everlastingly  £3.25

Bob Chilcott – The Twelve Days of Christmas £9.95

Kim Andre Arnesen – Cradle Hymn £4.60

Ole Gjeilo – The Rose £3.25

3 pdfs:
*Brahms – An die Heimat 

*Benedict Landauer – Stars

*Bob Chilcott – We Wish you a Merry Christmas

Subs:

Subs will remain at £90 this term – payment details below:

£90/term to be paid into choir bank account – please put your name and ’subs’ as reference:

Account Name: Sheen Gate Choir

Account Number: 47107324

Sort: 60-01-39

Working Term Dates – Autumn​ Term2025:

16 Sep – 9 Dec except 1 week half term 28 Oct 

Holly Lodge Concert: Thursday 4th December

Concert Date: Sunday 14th December 

Dear All

In case you missed the newsletter last week (you can view it under ‘Recent News’ on the website) I will be placing a second order for this term’s music for those who missed the first deadline. Let me know if you would like to be included in the music order by 9am Friday 12th Sep on Siobhan.waswood@icloud.com (details below). 

Our first rehearsal of the new term will be on Tuesday 16th September, 19:45 -21:30 at Christchurch, East Sheen SW14 7AW. We’re very much looking forward to welcoming our new Music Director, Neavan Lobban and seeing everyone again – all new members!

Existing members will recognise Gjeilo’s ‘The Rose’ which is included in the programme. Most existing members will already have a copy of this piece. Please bring it along to rehearsal or let me know if you require a copy.  Please also print off the 3 pieces additional pieces listed below and bring them to the first rehearsal.

Music Order: 

Please email me by 9am Friday 12th Sep on Siobhan.waswood@icloud.com if you would like to be included in this order. Please specifically advise whether you would like The Rose to be included in your order. If you don’t mention this I will assume you don’t need a copy of that piece. 

Order A:

James MacMillan – O Radiant Dawn  £3.25

Bob Chilcott – Where Riches is Everlastingly  £3.25

Bob Chilcott – The Twelve Days of Christmas £9.95

Kim Andre Arnesen – Cradle Hymn £4.60

Order A Total: £21.05

Order B:

Ole Gjeilo – The Rose £3.25

Order B Total: £3.25

Programme for Autumn Term – print off 3 pieces with asterisk and bring to first rehearsal: 

*link to pdf

James MacMillan – O Radiant Dawn 

Bob Chilcott – Where Riches is Everlastingly 

*Brahms – An die Heimat 

Ole Gjeilo – The Rose 

*Benedict Landauer – Stars

Bob Chilcott – The Twelve Days of Christmas 

Kim Andre Arnesen – Cradle Hymn 

*Bob Chilcott – We Wish you a Merry Christmas

Subs:

Subs will remain at £90 this term – payment details below:

£90/term to be paid into choir bank account – please put your name and ’subs’ as reference:

Account Name: Sheen Gate Choir

Account Number: 47107324

Sort: 60-01-39

Working Term Dates – Autumn​ Term2025:

16 Sep – 9 Dec except 1 week half term 28 Oct 

Holly Lodge Concert: Thursday 4th December

Concert Date: Sunday 14th December