A visit from ReChoired 19-22 October 2017

Enjoying good food and good company

It was quite fabulous that Greater Manchester did its best trick: it poured with rain and we got quite damp. No problem. It can be exactly the same in Copenhagen. We all say: no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothing.  So we set off for Ordsall Hall in raincoats and with umbrellas. Quite fabulous too that these lovely people stayed just on the edge of the Ordsall estate where it all began for the Ordsall A Cappella Singers.

ReChoired sing both a cappella and accompanied. They have 22 members. Their repertoire includes jazz, gospel, pop, motown, soul and well-known Danish songs. Conductor Peter Bom often arranges the songs for them.

They came to sing and be with us from 19 to 21 October. 

Yes, we became tour guides. One of our lovely sopranos, Helen Taylor, coordinated all of this beautifully and they quickly felt at home. Others chipped in and helped with the guided tours, tea, lunch, directions and much more. Thanks to everyone who helped make this a smooth and fun trip.

Ordsall Hall was a-buzz with a school group, another big party and ourselves. Yet we also spoke of what the acoustics were like, where we stood to sing and how we "closed down" the hall before it was restored. You have to know about Lowry if you come to Salford and Lowry gives us a good impression of what the old Salford was about. It was too wet for a walk around the sculpture trails that gives the full story of the Ship Canal but we had a good view of the Manchester United Stadium, the Imperial War Museum and the canal itself from the Lowry.

We also toured the city centre on Friday, getting very wet but having a great time anyway - ReChoired were particularly taken with the Town Hall, which was described as ‘magical’ and led to much 'bee-spotting’ around the rest of the tour. We also spent time at the Central Library, Royal Exchange Theatre (for a coffee and cake break naturally, and to get dry before going out in the rain again!) and the Cathedral, ending up with lunch in the Corn Exchange. 

We thoroughly introduced ReChoired to the Manchester tram network, which delighted them as Copenhagen ‘only’ has buses, underground trains and ferry boats between islands. They were steadfastly cheerful in the teeth of Storm Brian and very generous with their appreciation of our own music. 

Yes, quite right that they saw Salford first. Quite right too that we introduced them to some of the bars: Elnecot on Thursday and Kro Bar on Friday. Then there was http://www.refugemcr.co.uk/ after Kro closed. Vapiano was the venue for a meal on Saturday evening, followed by The Briton’s Protection  where ReChoired delighted everyone in the pub with a mini concert and then, after they collected some new Canadian fans who were in Manchester for a music convention, they went on to Via. 

We might have even said that we offered them a tour of the local churches: St Ninian's for our rehearsal on Friday, St Peter's Chaplaincy for our joint concert also on Friday and Brunswick Church for our joint workshop. Did this tour bring miracles? A ReChoired voice that was lost came back in St Ninian's. Some fabulous sounds happened in St Peter's. There were more good sounds the next day in Brunswick and a delicious spread, including freshly made pizza, for lunch, all of which seemed to come from nowhere. Maybe it was the hot tea, the enthusiasm of both choirs and that uncanny way that those sorts of meals always work. Maybe those are miracles anyway.  

Rehearsing together at St Ninian's

Of course the music was the main point. ReChoired brought along a delightful repertoire.  It was great to sing Kiss From a Rose with them and have them join us for One Day Like This at the concert.

Singing together the next day was really special. We enjoyed two slightly different warm-ups form Jeff and Peter. Jeff taught us (Everything I Do) I Do It for You, arranged by Kirby Shaw with whom we are so familiar and Peter introduced us to Riverside, his evocative arrangement of an Agnes Obel song. Then it was time for Christmas songs with bright arrangements of Sleigh Ride and Jingle Bells. Both directors emphasised brightness, communication and finishing off phrases together.     

Sure, there are differences between the two choirs. ReChoired auditions, we don't. Their average age is lower than ours. They deliberately keep quite small whereas now we are quite big. Actually, though, as always with these international exchanges, there is more that is similar than is different. Goodness, we even both rehearse on a Tuesday evening and have cake in the break. Naturally we all love to sing and we both benefit from a musical director who is strict but motivating and has a great sense of humour.     
  

ReChoired perform for us at our workshop

Our workshop finished with a lovely surprise. We were presented with copies of ReChoired's CD. I'm listening to it as I write.   

A lovely occasion all round.         

                                   

 

Wig, hats and Wind in the Willows –singing at the Lowry 29 October 2016

Lovely to be invited again to sing in this fantastic space to help at the Family Fun Festival. We had fun too. Well, don’t we always when we sing? And getting to wear wigs and fancy hats and other funny things was just the icing on the cake.

Hats and wigs and other fun things. 

It was a bit of a challenge getting there:

·         Manchester United were playing at home in the afternoon

·         The matinee of a big musical was taking place at the theatre

·         There was an Open Day at Salford University

·         There were replacement busses on the Bury Metrolink line.

But would we let that put us off? Of course not! Twenty or so of us made it there and parts were well balanced.

We were looked after very well by Assistant Musical Director Daisy. I Got Rhythm; It Don’t mean a Thing; Deep River; Here, There and Everywhere / Long Winding Road; One Day Like This, Kiss the Girl, Deep River, Hail Smiling Morn; and we ended with Viva la Musica. Did we get the sound right up to the top of that gloriously high ceiling? I think we might have though we didn’t raise the rafters and the roof isn’t in need of repair. Ah, but that’s a song for another day.

Daisy doing great stuff. Love the new hair! 

We sang for forty minutes and what a nice selection of songs. In no particular order, as they say, because I can’t remember the exact order we did them in and forgive me if I’ve left any out, we performed:

We had an appreciative audience, so if you were there and stopped to listen- thank you.   

Several of us were able to stay on and watch Wind in the Willows.  It’s being shown here before it goes up to the West End. A real fun production, and even though it may have seemed a little sophisticated for this audience that had many children in it, they seemed to enjoy it. It’s a well-loved and well-known story so the adults enjoyed it.

There was some super music in it and I found myself thinking that several of the numbers would be fun to sing.

                 

The Hedgehogs, Field Mice and Swallows were delightful. There were a lot of different regional accents in the show – Irish, Brummie, Scouse, and of course Toad himself spoke a wonderful Received English verging on Posh.  

A difficult moment came when a piece of the set didn’t move; they had to bring the safety curtain down and the house lights up. We were still in Toad’s bedroom when he was supposed to be appearing in court. It only took a few seconds to fix and soon the show was underway again.

“It was just a technicality. You know how irksome these can be,” said Toad to the judge when he explained about stealing a car. HA HA!

It seemed like a cast of hundreds but there were just about as many in the cast as there’d been on our choir earlier. Gosh, they worked hard. And there was going to be an evening performance as well.   

The show finished conveniently at about 4.43. We scuttled off quickly to avoid the football crowds.

A fantastic afternoon all round.  No wonder we keep on coming back for more.       

Singing for Joey: The People's Premiere of War Horse, 23 July 2014

Suddenly there is the unmistakable noise of a horse’s hooves behind us. We’re singing in a gallery so this might be surprising. Yet we’re kind of expecting it. A change in the expression on the faces of the sopranos and basses, and the delight in the eyes of the guests arriving confirm that he’s here. The star of the show, Joey, has come out to greet us all.