Rehearsal 12th September

Three pieces worked on tonight: John Rutter's Shepherd's Pipe Carol, which we didn't quite get to performance standard last year - so this time we're starting early. It's gorgeous, but not simple!! This time we'll do it. Next, An Ave Verum by Saint-Saens, a medieval text for Corpus Christe. Then we worked through to the end of Malcolm Edwards' Sing till sundown. Welcome to Heather, whose first night it was. Much laughter, as always - such a great atmosphere. Are all choirs so much fun, like this one?

Autumn term begins...

5th September and back to work after our (rainy) summer hols....and how very nice to see some new faces, thanks in part to the article in this month's Cockermouth Post, and in part to Wendy Sanders, who is just brilliant at persuading people to do things they didn't know they wanted to do - like join a choir! So hello Caroline (past member), Nicola (just moved to Cockermouth from Borrowdale) and Deborah. Tonight we worked first on a Douglas Cook setting of Keats' 'He wishes for the cloths of heaven'. Then 'Sing till Sundown' by Malcolm Edwards; and finally a lovely setting of the spiritual 'The Virgin Mary had a baby boy'. Next week we will need our copies of Carols for Choirs and we will also work on a fresh number from our Six Motets by Faure and Saint-Saens. Tickets will be on sale from next week for our fund raiser, An Evening with John Crouch. This will take place in South Street church rooms on Friday 12th October at 7.30pm. John will demonstrate French provincial cookery (with tasters!) and this will be followed by a two-course meal. Tickets will also be on sale at Billy Bowman's, cost £15, and there is a vegetarian/vegan option available (which must be prebooked). More on this in later bulletins!

Last rehearsal of the season!

An early start to our autumn learning programme, following a really good concert on Saturday night. Not one of our bigger audiences, but our guests (Papcastle group players) were wonderful and played superbly. Full justice to a (difficult!!) Phil Wood composition that was premièred at the Wigmore Hall over ten years ago. Tonight we began a fresh Douglas Cook composition, a setting of Keats' 'He wishes for the cloths of Heaven'; a lovely Christmas seasonal piece by Malcolm Edward, 'Sing until sundown', and two Christmas spirituals. Val then treated us to a summer celebration Pimms (whilst the committee hammered out the boring financial details of paying for increasingly expensive music, and the new committee for the coming year; Chair, Val Leach; Vice chair, Lindy Wilson; Secretary, Liz Jackson; new members, Sue Hellier and Janet Mansfield. Still one committee member short, but Sue Cumella has promised to think about it. Val presented us with a list of music that she thought would suit our group, and members were able to vote on their preferred options. Numbers will now be collated and final decisions made during the autumn. Final events before the summer hols begin are the Marvejols planning meeting on Monday, and our end-of-season party at Sheila and Bob Harwood's in Crosby on Wednesday next.

Rehearsal 4th July

Last rehearsal before Saturday night's concert. Worked on the accompanied numbers, as we have only recently sung all the unaccompanied programme so that's much more secure!! The dire weather this summer has led to a number of members escaping ANYWHERE where there is a chance of sun for a few days... oddly, this seemed to inspire those of us there tonight to superhuman efforts and Val was very pleased with most of our work... Guests at the concert will be from the Derwent Wind Group, who will be playing a work by Philip Wood - reason enough to go to a concert anywhere, in my book! One more post concert rehearsal to come next week, followed a week later by our summer party, and then it's feet up for the summer. Possibly in a deck chair...

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!!