Lewes Christmas Concert – programme latest

As well as the Vivaldi Gloria, there’s going to a be lovely mix of seasonal stuff at our Christmas concert. Although there’ll be several unaccompanied numbers such as John Tavener’s The Lamb and Victoria O Magnum Mysterium, some plainchant and possibly even some 20th century schmaltz (!) we’re taking advantage of having Nick’s chamber organ and a string quartet. They’ll…

Two weeks till our first rehearsal

Putting on a concert requires a bit of planning and with ours just a month away this is the point when I try not to start worrying! My only worry is always the same one – that we won’t get a decent-sized audience! But by the time it gets to the day there’s nothing more you can…

Planning for the Christmas concert

The September concert went fabulously – a full audience, Briony was fantastic in ‘In the Beginning’, I managed to squeak out my ‘mouse’ solo without developing a frog in the throat, the singers gave their all. Loads of lovely compliments, such as ‘we won’t hear a better concert in this church for some time’… hopefully not too…

Hear us in rehearsal next Saturday

… not that we’re not encouraging you to come to the actual concert of course! But next Saturday 13th September it’s Heritage Open Day in Lewes when several town centre buildings will open their doors for guided tours, talks and generally having a look around. One of those buildings is St Michael’s Church on the…

The story behind the poster

The poster for our next concert is a little different from normal. I love creating event posters but I’m not a trained graphic designer and I’m aware I can easily fall into using certain familiar styles and layouts. When it comes to classical music concerts, it’s tempting to go with something that will be instantly recognisable…

Concert: Britten, Copland, Finzi, September 20th

We’ve just had our third rehearsal for our autumn concert and it’s sounding fantastic, especially our super mezzo soloist Briony Lambert who is going to be sensational in the Copland piece. There are ‘corners’ in the Copland that I’m having to listen to over and over to make sure I’m certain of landing on the…

Plans for 2014 and beyond

Happy New Year! It’s been a lovely Christmas season from a concert point of view, and although we weren’t officially performing Nick did form up a vocal ‘octet’ to sing at the biennial Amnesty International Benefit Concert, ‘In the bleak Midwinter’, at St John’s Sub Castro in Lewes just before Christmas. The event was organised…

Clive Osgood’s Miserere Mei – video

We shot a little video at the rehearsal for our concert the other week – here’s Clive’s brilliant Miserere mei which he wrote especially for us. This is the third time we’ve performed it. Unfortunately it’s not on our CD because Nadia (essential soprano element) was away! (Excuse the quality – but it gives you…

Concert this Saturday in Lewes

We’re giving an early evening concert on Saturday at St Michael’s in Lewes  – yes, 6pm start – to launch our CD. It’s a feast of English music sacred and secular. The programme includes many of the pieces from the CD, such as Stanford Beati quorum via and Walton Set me as a seal, plus…