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Mike Dabney who is a 1st bass with First United Methodist Church choir, Livingston, Texas needs a tutorial for the Magnificat by Mark Hayes. Can anybody help? A midi file or Choraline equivalent would do. Click here Webmaster if you can help.
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More news of your events
This site is changing and developing as a result of your input and my self-indulgent additions! Consequently, what used to be here as a guid to impressing your conductor has now been put on the Learning page. So what’s new?
Arun Choral Society
at Arundel Cathedral
Nothing succeeds like success.
The Arun CS performance of Verdi’s Requiem on 3rd November brought calls of 'encore' with many people on their feet. Drinda Gibbons, Arun CS Publicity Manager, reported that more chairs had to be brought in to supplement Arundel Cathedral’s normal 550 seats because people were queueing outside. Unfortunately, the Health & Safety limit resulted in people being turned away but one turned up at rehearsal the following Monday, wanting to join.
Click here for a concert report and to see a panoramic picture of the choir. Is there somebody there you recognise?
Click here for details of their two Carol concerts or see their web-site
www.arunchoralsociety.co.uk
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Report by Rupert Street on The English Arts Chorale concert in Arundel Cathedral on Saturday 10th November
“How wrong can you be? In my experience it is the first five bars of music which tell you what the concert is going to be like. In the Chichester Psalms, Bernstein starts with a wake-up call ‘I will rouse the dawn’. When some 5 seconds later came the reply from somewhere up in the roof, “Hi, Lennie and the same to you”, I thought we were in for a symphonie cacophonique or even catastrophique. The notes were right, the Hebrew correct (as far as I could tell) but somehow the choir had to find the skill and energy to swamp the echo, reverberations and long decay time of Arundel Cathedral. This they did and the last movement was sublime with the final notes fading like a summer day into the velvet of dusk. more
Chris Woodham, percussion,whacking into Bernstein at Arundel Cathedral.
More info from www.englisharts.org
The English Arts Chorale welcomes new singers. The Chorale meets
at 7.44pm every Monday at
Wray Common School,
Kendal Lane, Reigate. More from the Membership Secretary 01293 775583 or membership@englisharts.org
Do you sing south of Eastbourne?
If you do, you’re probably very good at gargling. If you live within a 15 mile radius of Eastbourne (forgetting the water) Maggie Bennett would like to hear from your choir. She has formed an association of amateur choirs rehearsing and performing in Eastbourne and the surrounding area. The association was founded to promote the mutual benefit of the individual organisations, local singers, potential singers, and local audiences and to encourage and support the development of choral music.
The first major EADCA venture which is a Gala Concert on March28th 2008, as part of the first ever Eastbourne Festival. They are singing the Rutter Requiem and Jenkins’ The Armed Man and are hoping for choir of at least 150, possibly 200. Why not take part? You don’t have to live in Eastbourne!
Click here for more details where you can download an Application Form.
For more information, go to
eastbourneanddistricthoirs.co.uk
If you get the chance, tell Maggie that you were sent there by this site, choralsociety.org.uk
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Saturday 8th December
Robin Howden who sings and helps to run the Mayfield Festival Choir is organising a Concert in St. Dunstan's Church, Mayfield, Sussex on Saturday 8th December to raise money for CLICSargent, which supports children with cancer.
Programme is detailed here. There will also be some seasonal prose and poetry (Betjeman et al) read by Alison Mackenzie.
He is inviting the members of the Mayfield Festival Choir as well as visiting past and new singers to contribute £10 to sing in a special concert. So far he has had 42 'takers' .Also included in the performance is a children's choir from Skippers Hill Prep. School and the girls from St. Leonard’s-Mayfield. Graham Caldbeck will conduct with Andrew Benians on the organ.
All voices are encouraged to take part but particularly tenors. Rehearsals are every Thursday from 15th November and there will be a run-through on the afternoon of Saturday 8th December before the performance at 7.00pm. (A total of Five Rehearsals).
Interested? Contact Robin Howden
01825 830277 robinhowden@aol.com
Want a new experience?
The Warlock Singers is an ad hoc group which performs 4 or 5 times a year. It has a repertoire which includes music by Peter Warlock (and of that ilk). The choir is audition only so you should expect a high standard. Their Christmas concert entitled ‘Christ’s Nativity’ is on Wednesday 12 December at St Mary’s Church, Westerham. The programme includes Ave Rex by Mathias and carols by Aston, Walton, Warlock, Parry, Byrd and others. more
Mayfield Festival Chorus
Their concert on Saturday 11th November, of the Mozart Requiem was a sell-out. They will also sing some Elgar. Their venue is St. Dunstan’s Church, Mayfield.
Since the choir was reconstructed in 2004, it has grown in size (70-80) and quality. The conductor, target="newwin"Graham Caldbeck makes rehearsals fun as well as hard work. If your are interested in joining or just want to know more, contact Robin Howden 01825 830277 e-mail: robinhowden@aol.com
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Something to add to this site?
If you click here you can fill in a form to send to Johann Sebesten Bark, the Webmaster. Or if you would like some midi files sent to you, then click here.
Nothing succeeds like success
Reigate and Redhill Choral Society's workshop on Saturday 6th October was a resounding success. Over sixty people spent a very enjoyable afternoon learning more about the 'inner game' of sight-reading. There were a lot of new faces there from choirs around the region. As Lesley Redfern (Publicity RRCS) says, “which just goes to show that no publicity effort is ever wasted”.
Students from St Bedes and Royal A&A schools who took part in the concert at the Harlequin following the 'in school' Legal & General Soundbite Workshops.
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On Sunday 18th November 6.30pm, there is an 'evening worship' at Reigate Park Church in aid of Marie Curie. Members of Cantamus Reigate will be joined by various friends to present a programme of poetry readings and music appropriate for remembrance including movements from Fauré’s Requiem and the slow movement from Elgar’s ‘Cello Concerto.
- Cantamus Reigate Choir and friends
- Antonina Dembinska-Kenner (soprano)
- Susannah Shucksmith (harp)
- Isabella Dembinska-Kenner (cello)
- Nicholas Landauer (conductor pictured right)
Admission FREE. Retiring collection for Marie Curie Cancer Care
For directions to Reigate Park Church,(just south of Reigate town centre) please look on
www.cantamusreigate.com
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Saturday 6th October
Voices for Hospices
 Voices for Hospices is a UK registered charity which co-ordinates a ‘Mexican Wave’ of simultaneous concerts round the globe, on the same day, once every two years. This is what went on in the South East.
Voices for Hospices at St. Margaret the Queen, Buxted Park.
This concert was a sell-out with an audience of about 220.
Marie Macleod gave a brilliant performance of Elgar’s ‘cello concerto and you could hear how she has developed from being the string winner of the BBC Young Musician of the Year Award. She was well supported by Levon Parikian and his orchestra although the brass section nearly blew the roof off. So, okay, Elgar liked his brass and would have approved!
Nicola Stock gave a clear-as-a-bell performance. She has become a soprano with the ability to sing a B flat without any scooping, gulping or forced breathing. I will say no more than seek her out and engage her.
The 85 strong choir was better that they thought they would be. With only three rehearsal, Levon managed to make a choir out of 85 disparate voices. Fauré’s Cantique was very good and even though some of the Rutter Requiem was not as he originally wrote it, he would have been pleased with the effect.
The Buxted Event has now run for 14 years. When it is not a Voices for Hospices year the concert is still run for the benefit of the St. Peter & St. James Hospice, Sussex.
Don’t rush (give David and Lindsey time to get their breath back) BUT for news about next year’s event, contact David Waddington,
E-mail: dwaddington@talktalk.net
Hurst Green Singers
Hurst Green Singers ran a Voices for Hospices Mozart Requiem Workshop at St. John’s Church, Hurst Green, Oxted. In aid of Marie Curie Hospice, Caterham, Surrey
On Saturday 6th October, Nicholas Landauer, who is the Music Director of both Cantamus Reigate and The Cantamus Reigate Chamber Choir,conducted a performance of Tallis’ Spem in alium and more, at St. Mark’s Church, Reigate
’Come in choir No.3. Your time is up.’
Spem went well - so well, they were specially requested to repeat it after the interval - a life-time's ambition for Nick! The RVW and Howells both raised the roof with 118 singers. The individual choirs all performed entertaining items:
- New Sussex Singers - You Are the New Day (Kings' Singers); It Was a Lover and His Lass (Rutter)
- Wimbledon CC - O Happy Eyes (Elgar)
- Saffron Walden Singers - Alleluia! I Heard a Voice (Wheeler)
- New Voices - Ceremony of Carols - two carols (Britten) - accompanied by Susannah Shucksmith (harp)
- Cantamus CC - Lay a Garland (Pearsall); Fyer! Fyer! (Morley)
The SWS piece was written by the choir's director, Janet Wheeler, and it was quite an achievement to bring off convincingly. The real star choristers of the evening however, by popular acclaim, were Tali Glynne-Jones' pupils, New Voices. Their performance of the Britten was vibrant and committed, and the soloist, Natalie Jones, sang hauntingly. The sixteen girls are aged between 12 and 16 and could compete successfully in any company. We were also treated to the Debussy Chansons de Bilitis, performed by soprano Sarah Hale and pianist Johnathon Hart. Everyone seemed to enjoy the evening - I certainly did!
Nicholas Landauer on 01737 213544 www.cantamusreigate.com
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