Well hello everyone! I hope you’re all well and have had a lovely summer break! It feels like ages since I last wrote to you, but it’s lovely to be back in touch. We’ve had a great summer – ended up moving house, which took the latter half of the summer holidays… and most importantly, we now have internet!
I’m really looking forward to this coming term, and to seeing you all again! There’s lots of information below, so I’d be really grateful if you’d give it a read through.
Feedback from last year
In the chaos that is the end of term, I never wrote to thank you all for such a wonderful year. I know I’ve only been with the choir for 2 years now, but we really do go from strength to strength each concert! The Stainer Crucifixion concert was brilliant, filled with emotion and some really classy singing.
Then the Come-and-Sing Day was a really fun event, preceded by some lovely rehearsals getting to know the piece in great detail and continuing to train as a choir. We had loads of people come and join us for this, and I hope many of them will stay with the choir. As usual, Cumnor Choral Society were so friendly, warm, and welcoming, and it was a really satisfying day of music-making, culminating in a great informal performance (which I would have been proud to present as an actual concert!)
This term
It is upon us – the start of term! Goodness how I’ve missed seeing you all on Thursday evenings!
This term is a special one, not only because we’re doing a really poignant piece of music, but we’re doing two concerts, jointly with Wheatley and Great Milton Singers, led by Kate Billimore.
So, importantly, here are the dates for you all (Steve’s already sent these out in an email, but to reiterate):
Thursday 11th September – Weekly rehearsals start, 7:30pm-9:30pm!
Saturday 4th October – All-day rehearsal (either 10:00-16:00 or 10:30-16:30, TBC).
Thursday 30th October – Half term break, no rehearsal.
Saturday 22nd November – ‘Away’ concert in Wheatley.
Sunday 30th November – ‘Home’ concert in Botley.
After this we’ll be doing some community engagement over Christmas, hoping to sing at care homes on Friday 5th or 12th December. More details about this soon.
The marked score for this project is big, so it’s available as a link here: Jenkins, K – The Armed Man (Vocal Score).pdf
Please make sure you put the markings in as soon as possible once you’ve got your scores. I expect them to be in by the end of September, latest, please.
I’m sure I’m not alone in wanting to show how brilliant we are to Wheatley and Great Milton Singers, so let’s have a really good term of focussed music-making.
The rest of the Season
I’ll be able to share more details about the ’25-’26 season soon, but looking forward we’ve got our spring concert (This Joyful Eastertide) on Saturday 28th March, with rehearsals starting on Thursday 15th January.
We’ll also be doing another Come-and-Sing in the summer, and I’ll be able to share more details about that soon… it promises to be great music…
An Evening with Roderick Williams
As part of the Chipping Norton Choral Society’s 155th anniversary, we’re commissioning a piece of music. As part of the fundraiser for this, internationally renowned baritone Roderick Williams and star pianist Susie Allan are providing us with an evening of entertainment! It’s next Friday (19th September) in Chipping Norton, and Roddy will be giving a recital, a masterclass, and a Q&A as part of the evening. It’s a wonderful opportunity to come and see him perform. Tickets are available here: https://www.cncs.org.uk/product/aneveningwithrw/
I think that’s all for now, see you all on Thursday 11th for our first rehearsal!
– Ben
Cumnor Choral Society 