News

Workshop Saturday 17th February

We had a fantastic day of singing at our workshop on Saturday. As our conductor said Carmina Burana, is a bonkers collection of music, and in places a little bit rude. Luckily as we sang in Latin and ancient German we had no idea what we were repeating.

There was a lot of laughter and smiling in the room. And some pretty good singing and loads of lovely cakes with our tea.

We were very grateful to Thomas our superb conductor, and Duncan for his amazing piano playing, for leading us so well.

We entered into the Christmas spirit by decorating a Christmas tree at St Johns Church. Kathy and her team had made many personalised figures and ornaments, representing the choir. 

Many other groups had decorated their trees too! It was a thoroughly enjoyable afternoon.

The church looked very festive at the end of the day!

Come and see and hear the real thing on the 16th December at 6pm in the church!

Our performance of Rossini's Petite Messe Solennelle was a fabulous success! The whole choir was clapped all the way down the aisle with rapturous applause and there were beaming smiles on the faces of everyone in the room. Our rehearsals for this concert started in 2020 and our performance was rudely interrupted by the pandemic so it was a great pleasure to finally have the opportunity to perform this bonkers piece of choral music. We were joined by world class soloists who between them can boast performances at The Royal Opera House and Glyndebourne and it was a treat to be accompanied by a Harmonium as well as our very own Duncan on the piano. Our choir master, Tom, has spoken about the magic feeling we get after doing a great performance together and we definitely are still feeling that and our hard work has paid off! 

We hope to see you soon for our Christmas performance, including music, poems and congregational carols in collaboration with the choir from Keston Primary School.

                                  SUMMER CONCERT 2023

Our summer concert on July 15th was entitled 'A Teddy Bear's Picnic', an Evening of Summer Delights for Tired Little Teddy Bears, and it was certainly that. The choir really enjoyed singing the repertoire that our indefatigable Music Director had chosen for us. 

It was a very varied programme, including spiritual pieces by Elgar - The Spirit of the Lord, Ave Verum Corpus and Give Unto the Lord - to the more secular Tribute to Cole Porter, Rutter's The Sprig of Thyme and choral highlights from Porgy and Bess - and we must not forget the much loved 'Christopher Robin is Saying his Prayers'! Our much appreciated accompanist also played three pieces on the piano - Arabesque (No.1 in E major) by Debussy, Pieces Breves Op.84 No.2 'Fantaisie' by Faurè, and Novelette (No.3 in E Minor) by Poulenc.

It was a most enjoyable evening and we are now looking forward to the start of the new term on September 4th, when we shall begin rehearsing for our winter concert, Rossini's Petite Messe Solennelle. New members are always welcome so please do join us on September 4th.

EASTER CONCERT 2023.

We were proud to have received so many appreciative comments about our performance in our Easter concert this year.  Thanks of course are in part due to our guest soloists, Soprano Karla Grant, Alto Emma Lewis, Tenor Robert Jenkins and Bass Ben McKee, and the orchestral players who so competently accompanied us.

We began the evening with Mozart's Vesperae solennes de confessore, his

 final choral composition composed for Salzburg cathedral, of which the high spot could be said to be the beautiful Laudate Dominum, with its haunting melody.  Our talented accompanist then entertained us with the Finale (Allegro) Sonata No.33 in C minor by Joseph Haydn. We finished the first half of the concert by singing Rheinberger's Stabat Mater, a thirteenth century Christian hymn to Mary depicting her suffering during the crucifixion as she stood beside the cross, a work which is most appropriate for the Easter season.

After the interval we sang Haydn's Nelson Mass. Haydn was expected to compose a new mass each year for the name-day of Princess Esterhazy and in 1798 he composed this Mass in D Minor which was performed to honour Nelson when he visited Prince Esterhazy at Eisenstadt in 1800. It was thereafter known as the Nelson Mass.