An old fashioned ghost story

Hello everyone, yes I wrote and posted this this morning on the Collegium home page. I'll copy it to the main blog later. Do have a look and tell me if it's very cringe-worthy, trying to pass muster with the old spooky tale-telling.

Collegium chat

Wot I wrote for the choir blog this week ...

A short meditation on the dialectics of this week's rehearsal

PROS

1) Singing Bach
2) Standing next to Liz and Judith
3) New rehearsal arrangement - better acoustics for some maybe?
4) Singing Lotti and some rather jolly sections
5) Cups of tea and biscuits - thank you Mona
5) Learning music which I hope will influence my composition
7) Margaret saying positively after the break 'Back to Work' - I feel 'Right, let's go'
8) Russell winking at me - feeling included and input acknowledged in friendly way
9) Learning a little German from so many articulate conversationalists

CONS

1) Singing Bach
2) New rehearsal arrangement - where do the chairs go back? Arrrgh
3) Singing Lotti to dah, ooo, mah, mmm - very confusing for the brain
4) Consuming sugar in the vain effort of creating more energy
5) Too many members called Judith/Jude (parents' fault)
6) Margaret saying positively after the break 'Back to Work' - I feel 'Oh dear, can't I have another biscuit'
7) Russell winking at me - feeling embarrassed and that I must be doing something wrong
8) Didn't learn German at school - inadequate language skills - 'nein, wass ist das? das ist uberoffentittengeil' ... remembering very unsuitable boyfriend from Dusseldorf who taught me that a long time ago
8) Not being able to go to the pub, so slinking off home. Cheers everyone!

Choir rehearsal last night - it was tough

... so I wrote a poem

Sopranos and Altos

Tonight we have our SA sectional rehearsal for the Collegium, in the Welsh Chapel in Borough I believe - have never been there but sounds interesting. I shall take some pix.

One of our tenors - at TB sectional rehearsal

Collegium of London blog

I've started the blog that John Biggins our chair asked me to do for the next concert which is Lotti, Vivaldi and Bach. I'm going to draw pictures of the composers to make them more real to me. Started off with Lotti and his wife at home. Have to scan it in now and see what John thinks. He has the powers of veto and edit before posts go online. Wonder if he will exercise his privilege?

I can't scan it in and show you because Matt is on the PC downstairs doing some music. Sounds awesome.

Collegium Musicum of London

The choir's next concert is Saturday 12th May - 'This England' with music from Britten, Parry, Vaughan-Williams and Finzi among others. Can't wait. It's at St Michael and All Saints Church in Chiswick, a beautiful Arts and Crafts church.

http://www.coll-mus-lon.org.uk/

Another brilliant evening at choir

Benjamin Britten, what a great composer. Singing him and Gerald Finzi was completely thrilling. Great choice of lyrics, great settings. The concert's on March 12th.

Banjo Jim's

Had a wonderful gig last night at this very cutesy red-painted bar. First on was my lovely friend and great songwriter, Daniel Carlson and his amazing band. I last played with Daniel in Nottingham last summer, at the Folkwit gig.

I have to say Daniel is great on stage. And so are his band. The sound was brilliant. The guitarist had painted his guitar with swoops of colours that seemed to echo the sonic textures of his solos, and in his camel dungarees and with his long hair tucked into his cap, he looked very dapper as he kicked his leg emoting and expressing with his instrument. The drummer as right on it, into and out of the swells, the keyboard player I so enjoyed, with his Wurlitzer and Minikorg.

So kind, the band members stayed with Daniel, and so did friends of his during my set so it felt really good in the room. I loved performing, I played piano as well as uke again, and Daniel was kind enough to help me with the mic, when the one by the piano didn't work for some reason. I entertained with songs from old London town and demonstrated an old-fashioned knees-up (kind of). I have discovered that I love singing my setting of William Blake's London, you can really give that song some welly, and the words really help you lash it out.

My good friend, the amazing poet Shannon Elizabeth Hardwick schlepped over from New Rochelle, where she's living (Norman Rockwell lived there as well I found out yesterday during my visit to the Brooklyn Museum). Amos then gave us all a lift to a cool shop that serves flavoured rice pudding, called 'Rice to Riches'. I had almond and cheesecake flavours with roasted cherry topping. And we drove back over the Brooklyn Bridge, so I got to see night time city scapes. Awesome.

Kerry Andrew's choral work

Just heard Kerry's choral piece on The Choir on BBC Radio 3. Really enjoyed it, all the swooping vocals. I'd love to write a piece for a good choir to perform, maybe one day, when I'm a bit more experienced with the Collegium.

Monteverdi Vespers

Blanaid took some pictures of the Collegium Musicum of London Monteverdi concert at Holy Redeemer on Saturday evening.