It was one of those proper English summer days – mild but not hot and pleasant enough to sit out in the pretty garden at the front of Chorlton Methodist Church. The church has leased part of its building to The Edge Theatre Company. There is a nice café, The Dressing Room, which also provides a rather lovely surprise. We had the opportunity to explore all of this as the group who were to perform before us warmed up.
We were catered for, anyway, by the Festival that provided
drinks and cake all day and very reasonably priced sandwiches.
We joined six other choirs in a day of
singing. Each choir sang for about twenty minutes, and we were timetabled half
an hour apart, allowing plenty of time for change over and for the hosts to
introduce each group.
Other performers
were The Leve Chorus, Accord Gospel Choir and Pennine Trust Choir, Open Voice
Community Choir, ZunZun, Urmston Choral Society and Irlam Male Voice Choir.
I arrived early as
I know a member of one of the other choirs. I managed to hear four out of the
six. There was certainly a variety of styles and of music, all enjoyable.
As I sat down in
the audience after we'd finished and waited for the next choir to perform the
lady sitting next me whispered. "That was lovely. You have some strong
basses, don't you?" Well, I guess we do, then. And very well they do for us too. As of
course do the sopranos, altos and tenors.
"It's not
always easy to get basses," I replied.
"And tenors?"
"A handful of
males - three today - and the rest of us are female - four of us today."
"Ah … I did wonder
…"
The audience was
again warm and friendly. Naturally at an event like this it was largely made up
of people from the other choirs but there was also some members of the public
who had paid their £5.00 to listen; maybe
they were friends and family of the singers, but whoever they were, they clearly
enjoyed music.
It was a relaxed
day and as ever we had fun singing. Thank you Jeff and all choir members.
Thank you to the organisers
for giving us this opportunity.
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