Hello everyone, I hope you’re well and are looking forward to a well-deserved break over the Christmas period. Thank you for bearing with me with these Notes post-concert, I wanted to have as much in place as possible before writing to you. Please do take the time to read through as not only do I sing your praises, but there is some important information about the future.
Concert Feedback
I wanted to share my feedback from the concert, and the term, and to start off I wanted to thank someone without whom we’d all be lost – Fiona! She’s been utterly wonderful all term, and I’m sure I speak on behalf of us all when I thank her for all her hard work in accompanying us, and especially in leading sectionals (which has been a new addition to the choir’s weekly rehearsals). Although she didn’t play in the concert, and it was so lovely to have Peter back with us to accompany the concert on the organ, Fiona still supported us by singing tenor on the day!
I thought the first half of the concert was a huge success, especially the homophonic works such as the Matin Responsory (an exciting and arresting way to start the concert and captivate the audience), the Angel Gabriel, and This is the Truth. I also thought the other works were sung beautifully, but I wanted to commend you all on How lovely are the messengers which I thought was stunning; it had energy, confidence, and beautiful lines in it! Then, in the second half, the Haydn Missa Sancti Nicolai was brilliant! There’s not much detail I want to say, other than I thoroughly enjoyed conducting you all in it, and I could sense the audience loving it too! Very well done with this piece, and the challenges it brought – I thought all your hard work paid off on the night, so very, VERY well done!
Three more short notes of thanks: the first, to our professional musicians on the night. Thank you to Peter for coming back to play so sensitively and supportively, and to our soloists. Not only did they sing beautifully in their solo sections, but also as a quartet, and more importantly in supporting us all in the concert; having them on our parts gave us the confidence we needed to sing to the best of our abilities, putting into practice everything we’d worked on across the term. I’ve had so many comments saying how lovely it was having them with us, so thank you all for making them feel so welcome.
Secondly, the most enormous thank you to our Committee and other volunteers who put in so much time behind the scenes to ensure these events are a success. Without them, we couldn’t do this, so thank you to everyone for your very fine work! I get the fun job of standing at the front and waving my arms… they do the actual hard work!
And finally, a massive thank you to you all! You’ve made me feel so welcome in my first term with you all, and it’s such a lovely, sociable choir – this was exemplified in the post-concert buffet (a first for me, and I absolutely love it! What a great USP). The rehearsals have been really successful, and it all paid off in the concert when all of your hard work paid off perfectly! A huge congratulations on the concert, thanks for your hard work, and I look forward to more great music-making in 2024.
Spring Term 2024 and Other Future Dates
As we look forward to the new year, below is some important information for you all for the Spring term. Following the Committee meeting last night, we can confirm that this is final, and I can’t wait to start working on the below programme of music with you all.
Dates:
Our first rehearsal back is Thursday 4th January. This is to allow for enough rehearsal time before an early Easter break.
Half term break is Thursday 15th February.
The final Thursday rehearsal (Thursday 14th March) will be in St Andrew’s Church, NOT in the concert venue of St. Peter’s and St. Paul’s Church.
The concert is on Saturday 16th March.
Repertoire:
We’ll be commemorating the centenary of the death of English composer Charles Villiers Stanford, by singing two major works of his, and a short part-song. These are:
Six Bible Songs and Hymns,
(Interval)
The Blue Bird,
and
Songs of the Fleet.
I’ll be providing marked scores and learning guides after Christmas, so stay tuned for that in advance of our first rehearsal.
In the meantime, you can hear this gorgeous selection of music on Spotify, HERE.
Summer term:
Following our AGM and last night’s Committee meeting, I noted the eagerness to do something in the Summer term as well, and we’ve got a rough plan in place, with more details to come. Essentially, it’ll be a short ‘half’ term of 5 rehearsals, culminating not in a concert but a Come-and-Sing day.
The proposed dates are 5 rehearsals starting on Thursday 18th April, and the Come-and-Sing on Saturday 18th May. We’ll be working out the details and logistics of this all in the new year, so we’ll confirm this with you all as soon as we can, but for now please do put those dates in your diary!
Mann Singt!
Some of you may know I often sing with a German male-voice ensemble called Mann Singt!, and some of you may even know that I went to record a CD with them back in September… well, just in time for Christmas, it’s been released!!! We’re so proud of it, so please do check it out on Spotify HERE.
I’m going to Germany in January to promote the CD, as well as to perform with my barbershop quartet the Acafellas, so if you’d like to buy a physical copy of this excellent disk, please email me directly or contact me via my website HERE and I can bring back a copy with me.
Finally…
I hope you all have a lovely Christmas and New Year, and I look forward to making more excellent music with you all in 2024.
–Ben
Cumnor Choral Society 