Good afternoon everyone! I hope you’re all staying safe and well in this nasty storm! We’ve fortunately not been too badly affected, but are now a bit apprehensive about moving our furniture in a van tomorrow...
I was really pleased with this week’s rehearsal, especially with the run of the Verdi – not perfect, but a really good thing to do at this point in the term! I’d also like to say a massive congratulations on the money raised for Brain Tumour Research – £300 is amazing. Although Eric may not trust any of my dinner invitations from now on, I think he was very touched by everyone’s commitment to wearing a hat/donkey ears for his birthday and in support of the charity. A huge thanks to the committee for organising it all.
What we did on 16.02.22
As I said, it’s an incredible achievement to have got all the way through the Verdi at this stage in the term. It was then great to dissect the first half of it and do some hard work on the notes, text, and character of the piece – Basses, I’m still not afraid of you!
We made some good progress with the Puccini Credo, and have now sung the entire piece in a good amount of detail. Well done with the amount we covered; I feel as though we’re in a really good place with it all.
What we will do on 23.02.22
Nothing! It’s half term, so enjoy the week off. Please do keep listening to the music, ensure your score is marked up, and keep practicing the parts you’re least familiar with. It’s going to be a really good second half to the term, I can feel it, so let’s come really on top of the music in March.
I’ll do another Conductor’s Notes next week letting you all know about the rehearsal on the 2nd March.
To help with any specific parts, please find two links below, to a site called Choralia. It’s a very crude audio quality, but it allows you to hear your own part, slow it down, and loop it for detailed learning. I highly recommend at least checking them out to help your learning specific parts – please don’t rely on it though... I worry you may all come to the next rehearsal sounding like computers!
Piece of the Week
The final bit of shameless self-promotion – you can still catch the NYCGB Showcase 2022 on YouTube until the end of March. I hop you’ll all check it out, not just to hear some incredible new music sung by yours truly, but to hear all about the phenomenal organisation I’ve been a part of over the past year.
Marked Scores
As always, the marked scores are here. If you haven’t yet put the markings in, I’d greatly appreciate it if you would.
Chipping Norton Music Festival
We’ll be singing on Saturday 5th March, with our set beginning at 4pm. Bernard will be accompanying us for this, and we’ll be singing the Kyrie and the beginning of the Gloria. I would love to have the whole choir there, and to use it as a great opportunity to perform together and to the community, so please put this in the diary.
Have a lovely half-term!
– Ben