Rehearsal 27th June

The choir sang as part of the Cockermouth Live! event, part of the summer festival, on Saturday morning at the Kirkgate. It was good to see new faces in the audience. Quite a respectable number too! Our a capella programme worked well and there were appreciative comments, both about our singing and the summer 'black with a touch of sweet pea' outfits. Tonight's rehearsal was fine-tuning numbers from the summer programme. Only one more rehearsal before the concert. There'll just be the one rehearsal after that before the summer break (for which Val says we do NOT need to take our carol books... she worded that one very carefully...). And of course there's the summer party at the Harwoods, who hope to be dried out after last weekend's torrential rain.

Rehearsal 20th June

All of our a capella programme tonight, ready for Saturday's performance at the Kirkgate as part of the Cockermouth Live! day (23rd June, 11 a.m.) So much easier for Val H. to conduct us all when our accompanist isn't there, not to be sitting behind a keyboard! So a good and productive evening for us all. We also had our AGM. Finding members willing to be on the committee is a problem, more than it has seemed to be in the past - but maybe that's just ignorance on my part. Might have to do some arm-twisting to reach a quorum on the committee. Watch this space...

Rehearsal 13th June

Hard work for Val tonight as Ann-Marie is rehearsing elsewhere for two weeks, and she had to combine conducting with accompanying. We did some note-bashing on items to be included in the summer concert; The Long and Winding Road, the two Ave Marias (Faure, which is so high it's in the squeaky range for some of us; and Saint-Saens); and the Gwyn Arch Latin American arrangements, The Girl from Ipanema, River of Babylon and Gauntanamera. Next week's rehearsal will begin at 7pm as we have the AGM. It will be totally a capella, in readiness for our performance at Cockermouth Live! on 23rd June, at the Kirkgate (11 o'clock). We will not now be singing at Isel Hall on 23rd in the afternoon, but have been asked to sing at Isel Church in early December. It's a little gem! The group photos that were taken some weeks ago are now ready. Audrey will have a list of prices for members who'd like to buy one, next week. Janet Mansfield is collecting for the raffle. For the summer concert, where refreshments will now be served in the church instead of the church rooms, members have been asked to arrive at the pre-concert afternoon rehearsal with a packet of either savoury or sweet biscuits.

Rehearsal 30th May, and the Loweswater Concert

The week started with a wonderful evening singing to the members of the 77 Club in Loweswater (our second visit). What a magical setting! What a wonderful evening! The accoustics in the old school hall were terrific, the audience were appreciative of our programme, and the glorious weather was just the icing on the cake. The camp followers sat outside chewing the cud and maybe talking about disappearing to the Kirkstile; I'm pleased to report that they didn't. The sound of our singing must have filtered out through the open windows, so they stayed. Afterwards, we were treated to drinks and cheese and mingled outside, enjoying the views towards Crummock, and the warm evening, or stayed inside, listening to the calling out of the raffle prize-winners, for those who'd splashed out on tickets. Tonight, an excellent rehearsal, with very detailed work on three of the items to be in our summer concert. Faure's Ave Maria, The Girl from Ipanema and The Long and Winding Road. Half term next week. See y'all on 13th June. By the way, there's an extra rehearsal scheduled for 11th July, after our summer concert. Christmas carols this early??? And Sheila Harwood has kindly offered to host our summer party at her home in Crosby on the following Wednesday, 18th.

23 May

Been in South Africa since my last post... made tonight's rehearsal a bit scary, as we have a concert tomorrow night. Will have to squeeze a bit of time into tomorrow's busy schedule to learn 'The Long and Winding Road' (OK, all you 60's buffs, you know it. But not the alto part of this particular arrangement..)

In the meantime, here's a picture of my very first sighting of a kingfisher. Not one we have here in the UK, but thrilling nonetheless!!

Rehearsal 2nd May

Last week's rehearsal (25th April) began with a photo session. It's a long time since we had a formal photo session, and Audrey Evans organised a photographer from the U3A to do the honours. He was very thorough, and I'm looking forward to seeing the results! I'm afraid I can't report on the following rehearsal, as I was at the 'no-voice' stage of a cold, so hot-footed it back home for a toddy as soon as the session was over. Made it to this week's rehearsal, albeit a little late, and dressed in Georgian Fair gear; came straight from a dress rehearsal for the Street Theatre. I missed the work on Guantanamera and The Girl from Ipanema, but caught the end of work on Faure's Ave Maria, which are part of the summer concert programme. Then we went through all of the programme for this Sunday's Georgian Fair concert at All Saints Church. We're opening the event at 2 pm; the grand finale is the Papcastle Phil, playing the specially commissioned arrangement of - well, it's hard to describe, but the title is '1812 in Cockermouth', so there could be some references to Tchaikovsky, and we've been promised special effects... can't wait!!

18th April rehearsal

Georgian Fair concert getting very close! Programme order now sorted, and tonight we went through most of it: Douglas Cook's Oh, love it is pleasing and The wild mountain thyme; Oh, won't you sit down; Azikatale; the Agnus Dei from Faure's Requiem, and Bobby Shaftoe. Note to all members: photo session next week before we start singing. Please be there at 18.45 wearing black (not necessarily what you'd wear for a concert) with your summer and winter touches of sweet pea and red, respectively, so we can have two official photos. The Marvejols trip will go ahead in summer 2013: we have a critically small but 'do-able' number of members who'd like to give it a go. Once the Georgian Fair is over, we'll have another meeting to further our plans. Meanwhile, Pat Tolley will write to Dominic Juive in Marvejols (who issued the invitation) to tell him the good news!!

Rehearsal 28th March

Last one before Easter. A night spent polishing up our a cappella repertoire ready for Cockermouth Live! and Isel Hall, both on 23rd June. Douglas Cook's arrangement of The Wild Mountain Thyme, which is at its best performed at quite a lick; the spiritual Wayfarin' stranger; Bobby Shaftoe, fun, showy & with a touch of humour; Zoltan Kodaly's Hippity-Hoppity (very glad we don't have to sing it in the original Czech!) William Cornysh's Ah, Robin, gentle Robin; a traditional South African piece Azikatal; Oh, won't you sit down, and Douglas Cook's Oh, love it is pleasing. We started off with two of our old South African favourites, Siya Hamba and Amen Siyakedumisa. Wow, busy night!!

Rehearsal 21st March

Worked tonight on two pieces to add to our unaccompanied repertoire. Kodaly's Hippity-Hoppity and Douglas Coombes' arrangement of Bobby Shaftoe. More work on Guantanamera, which dare I say it is approaching performance standard... finally!! Then the last few minutes on the introduction to Lennon & McCartney's Long and Winding Road. Doesn't bear any resemblance to that old Beatles recording of mine. I wonder who arranged it...

29 Feb, 7th & 14 March rehearsals

Bumper edition tonight!
Here's what has been rehearsed during the last three rehearsals.
7th March
Faure's Agnus Dei; He Ain't Heavy; Douglas Cook's 'O love it is pleasing' and an arrangement by Philip Wood of the Fenham College Song... there must be a story there somewhere....
29th Feb (sorry, dates out of order!)
The Long and Winding Road; Girl from Ipenima; Guantanamera
14th March
Emphasis on unaccompanied works tonight. William Cornysh's Ah, Robin, gentle Robin; O won't you sit down; both our Douglas Cook songs, Oh love it is pleasing and The wild mountain thyme;a spiritual, Wayfarin' stranger, and a traditional South African song, both arranged by Peter Hunt, Azikatale.