Happy New Year everyone! I hope you’re all well and had a very restful and enjoyable Christmas and New Year. We had a lovely time here in Chippy for Ezra’s first Christmas!
2024, in particular the final few months, was certainly a whirlwind! I want to start off 2025 by saying a massive thank you to you all for your support, and most importantly, your understanding. The choir really succeeded in 2024, with 3 excellent concerts as well as multiple other events (more on that below), but we were impacted by various things, especially the untimely death of our good friend Eric and the birth of mine and Bec’s son Ezra.
Bec and I have been overwhelmed by everyone’s love and immense generosity, both through her pregnancy and since Ezra’s arrival. We’ve had so many cards, so many people coming up to us to share their congratulations, and so many offers of help, we really do feel very moved and VERY lucky! We were completely blown away by the incredibly generous cheque and that was given to us at the Christmas concert rehearsal; we decided to put some of that money towards a family photo shoot so we can cherish this period of Ezra’s life for years to come (please come and say hi on Wednesday if you’d like to see some of the photos!)
Once again, thank you to you all for unwavering support in a very difficult (for both good and bad reasons) past couple of months. I really look forward to spending 2025 with you all.
Last Term Feedback
Well, what a good term that was! We did so much in the space of 4 months, including putting on an excellent Christmas concert, 3 Christmas events, and before that starting work on the John Passion. One negative side to this, which I can completely understand, is that it felt like a really ‘bitty’ term, especially with the programme of music for the Christmas concert. I apologise for the broken nature of the term and the programme, I understand that it made learning the music a little harder than normal.
However, despite this, we still had a really wonderful Christmas concert! I thought the second half in particular was wonderful and, as I’ve heard from many members of the choir and audience, my highlights were the Jan Wilke pieces which sounded fab! There were some other truly exceptional bits of singing in the concert, notably O Little Town of Bethlehem, Jesus Christ the Apple Tree, and of course Jingle Bells which we’d all worked so hard on; despite it nearly falling apart in the first 4 bars as the adrenaline settled, it was a very assured and exciting performance, and a perfect way to end the concert! It would be remiss of me not to thank our accompanists, Reuben and Bernard, who played so exceptionally both as accompanists and soloists!
While it’s important to acknowledge and learn from the things that didn’t go so well, I want to remind you that things not going 100% is part of the joys of live music. With that said, I was really pleased with the Britten. Yes, there were a couple of moments which ‘almost fell apart’, but they didn’t detract from the movements that went well, the exciting atmosphere, and the excellent sound we made throughout the piece. So what if we rushed in This Little Babe, when Wolcum Yole was super exciting and engaging; and it doesn’t matter that we didn’t come in very confidently in As Dew in Aprille because That Younge Child was brilliant! It was a very good performance overall, and I’m very pleased and proud of it! Let’s learn from those ‘squeaky’ moments and make this term even better! Thank you for all the hard work you put in, especially in the last week or so – let’s get using those learning guides sooner this term!
Alongside our concert, we also did 3 carol events – the Chippy Christmas Lights Switch On, the Great Rollright Christmas Market, and at Watson Place Retirement Home. These all went incredibly well, and I’ve had some excellent feedback from listeners, plus invitations back for next year too. A huge thank you to all who sang for those, you represented the Choral Society brilliantly!
Wow, what a term! Before I wrap up, I want to say a final few thank yous – to our fantastic accompanist Ro, without whom we’d be lost; to Callum for taking the rehearsals while I was on paternity leave; to Annabel our Chair, and all of our wonderful Committee, who put so much time and hard work in behind the scenes to organise all that we do (we really couldn’t do it without them!!); and to those who ‘work backstage’ as it were, both at rehearsals and the concert – without fail you set up chairs, move furniture, sort refreshments, sell programmes and tickets, and countless other jobs that we often take for granted! Thank you, we’re all so grateful!
Plan for this term
Right, onto this term! It’s very exciting to be doing Bach’s John Passion this term. We already had 4 rehearsals in September on the piece, introducing us to every movement we sing, providing some background to the piece, and helping us understand the structure of the work. I look forward to building on this.
I’ll be providing monthly schedules for the project, so I don’t have to always worry about updating Conductor’s Notes each week (and letting you down when I miss it!). My one caveat is that it may change slightly each week depending on the previous rehearsal, but I hope it gives you all a decent ‘heads up’ about what to practice in advance of each rehearsal.
CHECK OUT JANUARY’S REHEARSAL SCHEDULE BELOW!
Dates
As well as the concert, there are a couple more dates for this term to put in your diaries.
Saturday 22nd February, 2pm-5pm – Workshop on Conducting
Following the theory workshops last year, there were a lot of requests for a conducting-based workshop to help understand what it is exactly that I do. This will be a great fun afternoon!
Please note this was originally on the 25th January, but has had to be moved to the 22nd February.
Saturday 8th March, times TBC, likely afternoon – Chipping Norton Music Festival
We’ll be singing at the Chipping Norton Music Festival. It’s our chance to show off to other choirs, promoting what we do and our Spring concert. This year we’ll perform the 1st movement of the Bach, as well as one of the Jan Wilke pieces from our Christmas concert. Let’s put on a good show and get the highest mark they give out!
Friday 11th April, 7:30pm-9:30pm – Friday rehearsal
Please note that we are having a Friday night rehearsal in the concert venue for this one. This is such an important rehearsal as it helps us get used to the space before the concert on the 12th April.
Marked Scores
The full-sized Marked Score is a big document, so I’ve provided a link to it HERE.
Alternatively, I’ve managed to compress it but it’s harder to read some of the markings. You can check that out below.
Please note that as the edition we’re using is still in copyright, the document is password protected. Annabel will email out the password, or you can ask on any Wednesday.
I expect all markings to be in by the end of the month please! It saves so much rehearsal time if everyone has them in, so I do expect you to take the time to put them in.
Learning Resources
There’ll be plenty of help in rehearsals on pronunciation, including some vocal coaching. We are exploring other learning resources too to give everyone the best help possible for the German.
In the meantime, I’ve found a pronunciation guide for the chorales, as well as some note-learning via John Fletcher Music and Choralia, which you can check out free of charge below.
– Chorale Pronunciation Guide HERE.
– Choralia HERE.
– John Fletcher Music HERE.
Listening Guides
As always I try to provide good recordings for you to listen to to help with the learning.
The recommended recording on Spotify HERE.
The recommended live performance is on YouTube HERE.
Cotswold Youth Choir
We had our first Christmas Concert on Friday 13th December, and it was so lovely to see so many from CNCS in the audience supporting the youngsters.
However, we still need more members, so please keep sharing our poster to anyone and everyone you know to encourage as many young singers to join as possible!
That’s it for now! Thanks for reading all the way through, and I look forward to seeing you all on Wednesday 8th January!
– Ben