Yes, we are just 7 days away from singing together again. Thank you, Boris!
I hope you have all been able to locate your music, or print off fresh sheets.
We will send out a practicalities post at the weekend to give you everything you need to know, but for now – a chance to remind yourselves of just how good we sound when we sing.
I hope this inspires you and whets your appetite for restarting next Tuesday, May 18th.
We had a scare this week when a DCMS minister incorrectly stated that amateur choirs singing again is step 4 of easing restrictions. Thankfully she corrected herself 24 hours later and we are therefore still on track for a May 18th restart.
We met with the administrator at All Saints today to go over logistics. All very similar to what we are used to at Christ Church so nothing to worry about. We will circulate details in due course.
SO FOR NOW – let’s blow the cobwebs off our music folders. Or just rummage around to see where they have gone. Dave advises that for this term we will stick to stuff we know well and/or have been working on most recently. If you would like to remind yourself of some tunes, or even arrange a sneaky garden sectional rehearsal, here are some pieces to pull out.
+ Linden Lea
+ Shenandoah
+ Cantique de Jean Racine
From Mozart Requiem:
+ Dies Irae and
+ Lacrimosa
You can find copies of the first three on the website, along with practice tracks for the first two. You can click on the link here or go to Music and Media Library in the menu, and the sub-heading Repertoire for 2020 Concert. The printed copies are accessed from the link behind the name of each piece.
Ladies and Gentlemen, I know we have been here before, but surely this time it is for real. We are getting ready to restart.
Our provisional start date is Tuesday May 18, based on the third step down of restrictions which is due to occur on May 17. Dave is ready to go, with a program designed to ease us back into singing, with some of the traditional songs we were learning pre-Covid, and some old favourites. And Robert will be back at the piano.
Christ Church is not yet ready to reopen its doors outside of services, so we have secured a temporary base for the summer term not far away at All Saints on Putney Common. Nice acoustic, plenty of parking and a good pub a few steps away. If anyone needs help with transport, please let us know.
We want to see as many friendly faces as possible, make a lovely sound again, and reconnect with each other and with music. Please rejoin us, invite any friends who like to sing, be in touch with former choristers who will be longing to be part of a choir again and let’s sing!
2021. Not at all like 2020.
Just in case you were wondering, we are not rehearsing this week. For a multitude of reasons.
We are all hoping beyond hope that we will be singing together soon, so please watch this space, but until otherwise instructed please use your Tuesday evenings for bridge, book club, binge watching Netflix or whatever else keeps you amused.
If the news tonight is bad and we are expecting to lose another chunk of Tuesdays, we may revisit the virtual concert trip that a small number of us enjoyed a few weeks ago. That and I will start making up some more quiz questions.
As if you didn’t already have enough reasons to be hoping for the best.
For those coming along, thank you! If you haven’t committed, please do come. The weather is going to be fine, and we owe it to ourselves to sing our little hearts out once more in 2020. Just easy, familiar stuff – the running order is at the bottom.
If you don’t have 100 Carols for Choirs, your music pack is here: https://sheengatechoir.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Carols-2020.pdf. If you do have the book, by all means print page 22 if, like me, you can’t remember all the gifts my true love gave to me.
Friends and family are welcome and we think we have a few coming. They are welcome to sing too, of course. Music sharing permitted within a family bubble.
And just in case anyone is worried, we are confident that we are 100% compliant with today’s Covid regulations, which make specific provision for singing carols. We just need to be finished by midnight.
Reminder – Don’t forget some way of seeing your music in the dark. A thermos of something seems like a good plan. Meet on the path between the Fife Road entry and the West Temple Sheen entry just before 8pm.
Hasta luego, amigos! Y FELIZ NAVIDAD A TODOS!
| Once in Royal David’s City |
| Silent Night |
| O Little Town of Bethlehem |
| Hark! The Herald Angels Sing |
| In the Bleak Midwinter |
| The First Nowell |
| O Come All Ye Faithful |
| 12 Days of Christmas |
Tuesday 15th we offer you socially distanced carol singing on Sheen Common at 8pm for around half an hour or so. The carols will mainly be from the Carols for Choirs but we will provide a pack for printing at home at some point in the next day or so. Don’t forget some way of seeing your music in the dark given you won’t be able to share copies or benefit from a four handed team. A thermos of something will probably keep you going but hoping it stays dry as currently predicted. If it looks like a wash out, we will decide an hour before and post here. Meet on the path between the Fife Road entry and the West Temple Sheen entry just before 8pm. It would be nice to know how many we are so we can appropriately plan – so feel free to email chris.hawkins2015@yahoo.com to let us know if you are coming.
Lesley
Dear all
Unfortunately Christ Church have decided that they are not comfortable with having us use the church while we are in Tier 2. So I am very sorry to say that we will not be meeting to sing carols tomorrow or next week.
I guess it’s a fitting way for 2020 to draw to a close….
Given that we may be in Tier 2 for a while, we have been thinking about alternative rehearsal spaces. If anyone has any thoughts, and specifically if anyone has any contact at Sheen Lane Centre, could they please make themselves known?
And in the meantime, very best of the holiday season to everyone. Special wishes to our wonderful leader Dave and his family; to our virtuoso accompanist Robert; to Jean Oxley, recovering from a broken hip; and to the several choristers who lost a loved one in 2020. We all look forward to rediscovering the joy and comfort that singing together brings, and to celebrating our ten eleven years of musical happiness next year.
Merry Christmas
Hello everyone. Just a short one to say that we are working with Christ Church to figure out our rehearsal schedule for the rest of 2020. We think that we are able to continue on the same basis as before, so please keep your calendars open for Tuesdays Dec 8 and 15, but we are are waiting for the church to confirm. All being well, we will be permitted the joy of singing some Christmas favourites.
Looking forward to seeing everyone again to see out 2020…
Hello singers! I hope you are all surviving Lockdown II. Despite missing our weekly get-together.
We are not the only choir whose 2020 schedule has been messed up, obviously. And, like many professional musicians, some of the professional choirs have switched to online performances. One such is The Sixteen, who are, whilst overexposed on Classic FM, brilliant singers with a fabulous sound.
They are doing a choral pilgrimage in November and December. Five concerts plus a carol concert, at venues across the south of the country, which are being sold as live-streamed events but which you can watch through January. The details are here: https://thesixteen.com/a-choral-odyssey/
A couple of us had the same idea, that we pick a night and we all go to a concert together – in our own living rooms but at the same time. Then, at the interval, we could have a quick hello over a glass of bubbly, and at the conclusion we could repair to the bar for the rest of the bottle and compare notes (over Zoom, inevitably) about what we listened to.
The concerts cost £10 each, or £50 for the whole lot, which is a fraction of what it would cost to be there in person.
The proposed date is Friday December 4th, 7.30pm, but it could be changed or it could be more than one night. UPDATE: WE ARE NOW LOOKING MORE AT TUESDAY DECEMBER 1st. If you’d be interested in getting together in this 2020 way while we still can, before the vaccines spoil all our ingenious virtual socialising, will you let me know? At the usual email – chris.hawkins2015@yahoo.com.
Stay well and see you all soon!
Chris
You had probably assumed as much, but just to confirm. Hope everyone is well and enjoying lockdown as best we can.
See you all soon!