Christmas Mash-up

At Dunham Massey

That’s how they described us at Event City for the WinterWonderland . That is a good description. Winter Wonderland is a noisy affair and even the heavily miked main acts were difficult to hear unless you were close up. Yet, with, for once, a backing track and a bit of mime and dance, we were delighted to find some children following us avidly with one young lady making a bid for Jeff’s job: she conducted us beautifully. Maybe for this event we should have renamed ourselves the Dark Elves. The stage lighting and the “snowy” back ground did a good job in showing off our black uniforms with purple hats, purple tinsel and white fairy lights.  This isn’t quite out usual sort of thing, but you know what: it was fun and we discovered new talents. We can mime and dance too! 

It’s been a bit of “mash-up” few days.

8 December Carol service at St Clements Ordsall

11 December Event City

12 December Dunham Massey

13 December Light up a Life, St Ann’s Hospice 

14 December Event City.

We have another appearance at Event City on 20 December and a very special private event on 23 December.

So many gigs, so many contrasts.

“Do enjoy the music,” says Reverend Sandra Kearney of St Clements. “They’re semi-professional.” Wow! Really? We just enjoy singing and always do the best we can. Anyway, there was a great little Christmas Fayre beforehand and some of us were able to sort out some last–minute Christmas shopping. So we were delighted to have been invited.

Singing for the Light up a Life ceremony is always special. This year we sang Sleep My Child. It worked well. It rained – which it has every year except one and that year was exceptionally cold. It didn’t deter folk though. It’s really moving as everyone lights their candle from another and then thinks of people who can’t be with us as we sing. The rain was only gentle so the lights held.    

Dunham Massey is special too. Christmas music in a beautiful old house – what could be more Christmassy? We had to be limited in numbers here. However, that is actually good for us sometimes. We have to work a little bit harder and then we bring that extra effort back to the main group. Win, win.

Two final rehearsals 15 December and 22 December and we’re already looking forward to 2016, which promises to be another busy one. We have just one week off this Christmas break.   

We wish a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all of our friends, fans and followers.  And to members too, of course.         

                 

            

            

Dunham Massey on the first evening of summer? 3 June 2015

Would it happen? Would it be too windy? Could enough of us get there? Or get there early enough? Would it be wet? Would we have on audience?  

We got there. Enough of us. On time. And the summer seemed to have come at last. The warm evening brought us an audience.  

On a fine summer evening in June the garden of Dunham Massey is one of the pleasantest places to be. Especially if you’re singing with a bunch of people you know well and with whom you’ve sung before. Especially if the birds join in – or were they competing? And especially if there are a group of really nice people who listen as they enjoy the gardens. 

Some of our lovely altos. A choir in a garden.  

Dunham Massey: Singing in a garden

The end of another week. A week of traffic jams and humidity. Rainy City can be less comfortable at 18 degrees than the Costa del Sol at 35 and is often grey even when warm. So how pleasant to spend a few hours enjoying the fresh air in the colourful gardens of this delightful National Trust property on a warm but not hot Friday evening. Dunham Massey: deer feeding, rabbits on the lawn, well-looked after flowerbeds, evening perfumes and birds trying to outperform us. The odd reminder that we’re not so far from the airport hardly mattered at all.  

We sang those songs that somehow go with a venue like this, some of them several times:

Blue Skies

Deep River

Imagine

Josuha

Kum Ba Yah

Longer

Love is the Sweetest Thing

Memories

Wasma

Wonderful World

For sheer joy there was also Dance in the Street. A couple of gently-paced performances of Kiss the Girl weren’t out of place either. We did one of our quirkier ones too: well there was woodland so there might have been teddy-bears picnicking. Who knows?  But no worries, because we didn’t start singing until after six o’clock when they’d all been taken home to bed. The Long and Winding Road went down well and though we’ve performed it before in public, we seemed more confident with it this time.

We sang in front of the summer house, in the formal garden, in the courtyard and in the rose garden. It was a different acoustic experience in each place. There were enough of us for our voices to carry when we sang in the open. In the more sheltered spots we could hear ourselves more clearly. The sound in the courtyard was particularly pleasing, though the foot-stamping in Wasma didn’t quite work on the grass in the formal garden. Under the dome in the rose garden we swivelled round like weather-house dolls to face one way and then the other. At every spot the audience seemed to appear from nowhere but they looked as if they enjoyed the performance.

In the end, we sang from 6.30 until 8.30 with only a few short breaks. We didn’t really notice we were tired until we set off back to our cars. No wonder we didn’t mind working hard, though, for it was such a treat to sing in such lovely surroundings. So, we’ve been allowed to perform in yet another remarkable venue.  

Thank you for having us, Dunham Massey. Can we come back again soon?