News January 2019

Happy New year to all of our members, fans and followers.

2018 was quite a year:

Take a look at our blog and Facebook page to get a flavour of it all.  

We had a very full house at our first rehearsal of the year yesterday and wasn’t it good to get back together and sing after a two week break.    

Before the rehearsal our committee met and 2019 is already filling up. Here are some firm dates:

3 March the MACC  The Manchester Amateur Choral Competition. Read more about it here.   The general  public can purchase tickets and if you enjoy listening to choirs this is a real treat. A whole day of it for a very reasonable price.  And we’d love to see your friendly face in the audience.  

29-31 March  Rome Yes, some of us are off to Rome. One of our members has contact with a choir there and so we’re delighted to be working with the Coro della Colina. Extra rehearsals for some of us now!

15 June Chorlton Choirs festival We’ll again be taking part in this festival. It is a relaxed, quite informal occasion and was really good fun last year. It is open to a public audience. Details to follow.

6 July  We’re off to the Llangollen Eisteddfod for the whole day. We’re not competing but we’re performing. This is a public-facing event. If you happen to be there that day, look out for us.

13 July Swinton Grove Family Fun Day. We’ll be there right at the beginning, helping to open the event.  We’ve attended this event many times before and it’s lovely.  Good food including excellent ice cream on offer.  If you come along, you may be able to combine it with a visit to the Gaskell House.     

20 July Buxton Fringe Festival  Again we offer two concerts: 11.00 a.m. at the United Reformed Church and 3.00 p.m. at St Mary’s. Tickets are already on sale. More details here.  This is one of our A Cappella and cake events so you’ll also be able to enjoy some delicious snacks. The Buxton Fringe anyway is full of delightful entertainment.  Take a look at their brochure.  Items are being added constantly.   

Some of our events are still under discussion and awaiting confirmation.  These include charity concerts, community events, workshops and no doubt plenty of Christmas activity in December and late November.  Watch this space. 

   

        

Newsletter 15 february 2017

Dear all,

We’re now getting very excited about going to the MACC. Last night we had quite an intense rehearsal. We hardly sat down at all and we didn’t really notice that we’d been on our feet for the best part of two hours. We spent the second half of our rehearsal singing in a different part of the room from normal, with clusters of people from each part in several places.  Challenging but rewarding. It really makes you focus in a similar way that the small group singing does.

And we have an extra concert. See STOP PRESS below for extra details.

The evening before the MACC we’re singing with two other choirs: the Volya Ukranian Male Voice Choir and Men2Sing. This takes place at : Manchester Universities' Catholic Chaplaincy
Avila House
335-337 Oxford Rd
Manchester
M13 9PG

And it’s FREE. Book your ticket by clicking on the link below.              

Forthcoming Events

You can also often find details on our Facebook page and we’ll usually put links on Twitter as well.

At most of our events you can get tickets on the door. However, we do recommend getting tickets in advance. It helps us and it guarantees that you won’t be turned away at the door. We’ve not had to do that yet but we’ve come close to it.    

STOP PRESS STOP PRESS STOP PRESS STOP PRESS STOP PRESS STOP PRESS 

 

Extra new concert Saturday 25^th February 2017

The Manchester Amateur Choral Competition is hosting a concert this year and has invited some of the best talent from around the country to come and sing.
Join us on Saturday 25th February for a fantastic evening of music before the competition heats up on Sunday.
Tickets are Free!

Book yours here.

 

 

Manchester Amateur Choral Competition 26 February 2017 

… fondly known as the MACC. Yes, we’re entering this again. The songs have been selected … more or less ….. Ha, ha, they’re a secret! We sing for fifteen minutes. It is open to the public – click on the link above -so you might like to come and support us. There is a fantastic atmosphere and although the choirs are in competition with each other they are also very supportive of one another. Guaranteed you’ll hear some great singing.       

Salford Choral and Vocal Festival 4 March

How could we not join in this?  It will to some extent be similar to what we’re doing for the  MACC – note how close together the two events are. But there’s more. In addition, we’ll be entering some small groups of up to ten people. This is something we’ve been working on recently. We’ve been meeting an hour early and singing in small groups – often with just one person singing each part. That really stretches you. It’s a sharp contrast to singing in the bigger choir but it’s great because you can really hear the other parts clearly.  

Find out more about the festival here.          

 

Buxton St Mary’s 22 April Centenary Concert 3.00 p.m.

We have been invited to provide a concert for St Mary’s, with whom we have become great friends over the years that we’ve been going to the Fringe Festival at Buxton. They celebrate their centenary this year. Tickets will be the same price as for our main Buxton concerts:

£5.00 full price

£3.00 concessions (children, unwaged, senior citizens)

Family ticket £12.00 – up to four individuals in one party, where at least one person must be a concession

Children 5 and under free.

The church is arranging the ticketing for this and it should be available by the end of the month. It will be possible to pay on the door but only if there are seats remaining. Book your ticket here to guarantee a place.  

 

Buxton Fringe 15 July 2017

We’ll be singing at our usual two venues:

United Reformed Church Buxton 11.00  a.m.

St Mary’s Church Buxton 3.00 p.m.

Book your tickets here.  Prices as above.

Victoria Baths 9 July and 10 September

We’ll be singing at about 1.00 p.m. and 2.15 on both occasions, though watch out for updates on this newsletter. If you’ve not been before the Victoria Baths are well worth a visit.  

We now are singing there regularly a couple of times a year. You can read about our previous visits here.      

Happy singing and listening everyone.

Newsletter 24 January 2017

Dear all,

It’s a been a little while since we’ve had a newsletter so now we have one or two bits and pieces to tell you. We’ve had to firm up one or two details and we did have a break over Christmas but now we’re speeding along again.

Christmas seems a long time ago now, but it you want to know what we did then, take a look at our blog.  This is always a fun time of year but it’s also good to get back to our normal repertoire and to learning some new songs.  And we’re doing that in spades.  

Last Saturday, 21 January, Jeff ran a very successful workshop for us where we were able to consolidate a few things. This is just another bonus of belonging to a choir. What a great way to spend a Saturday.  

And now we have a few events lined up for you. See below.         

Forthcoming Events

You can also often find details on our Facebook page and we’ll usually put links on Twitter as well.

At most of our events you can get tickets on the door. However, we do recommend getting tickets in advance. It helps us and it guarantees that you won’t be turned away at the door. We’ve not had to do that yet but we’ve come close to it.     

 

Manchester Amateur Choral Competition 26 February 2017 

… fondly known as the MACC. Yes, we’re entering this again. The songs have been selected … more or less ….. Ha, ha, they’re a secret! We sing for fifteen minutes. It is open to the public – click on the link above -so you might like to come and support us. There is a fantastic atmosphere and although the choirs are in competition with each other they are also very supportive of one another. Guaranteed you’ll hear some great singing.        

Salford Choral and Vocal Festival 4 March

How could we not join in this?  It will to some extent be similar to what we’re doing for the  MACC – note how close together the two events are. But there’s more. In addition, we’ll be entering some small groups of up to ten people. This is something we’ve been working on recently. We’ve been meeting an hour early and singing in small groups – often with just one person singing each part. That really stretches you. It’s a sharp contrast to singing in the bigger choir but it’s great because you can really hear the other parts clearly.  

Find out more about the festival here.          

 

Buxton St Mary’s 22 April Centenary Concert 3.00 p.m.

We have been invited to provide a concert for St Mary’s, with whom we have become great friends over the years that we’ve been going to the fringe festival at Buxton. They celebrate their centenary this year. Tickets will be the same price as for our main Buxton concerts:

£5.00  full price

£3.00 concessions (children, unwaged, senior citizens)

Family ticket £12.00 – up to four individuals in one party, where at least one person must be a concession

Children 5 and under free.

The church is arranging the ticketing for this and it should be available by the end of the month. It will be possible to pay on the door but only if there are seats remaining. I’ll send out a short note once we have the link for booking.              

 

Buxton Fringe 15 July 2017

We’ll be singing at our usual two venues:

United Reformed Church Buxton 11.00  a.m.

St Mary’s Church Buxton 3.00 p.m.

Book your tickets here.  Prices as above.

A couple of housekeeping items:

I’m sending out this newsletter to all those who have signed up for it AND to all choir members.  I do the latter so that you can easily pass it on to friends and family. You may therefore be getting it twice.  DO NOT UNSUBSCRIBE – you might unsubscribe from the wrong one and then not get vital choir messages. Let me know if it’s a problem.

I’m also now posting a copy of each newsletter on the blog. Therefore if you’ve deleted the email you can still access the info on our blog.          

Happy singing and listening everyone.

Whip-cracking Away with Family and Friends 16 January 2016

So, what better to do on cold January evening than come along to our Friends and Family concert held at Brunswick Parish Church, which several choir members attend?  Oh, yes, the sleet began to fall just as we all set off but the church was warm and cosy and a friend or two or three or four came along. 

This is now the third Friends and Family concert we’ve offered.  Always free and always with cake. We’re torn. At Brunswick Parish Church, it's easier to stay longer, lots of room, but it will probably have to be a Saturday or Ordsall Hall, very Ordsall, rather romantic, we have to leave promptly and it can only hold a smaller audience but we can use it easily enough on a Tuesday.  Let us know what you think by adding a comment here.         

My goodness weren’t our top-up acts something?  Daisy, also one of our talented young sopranos but an established artist in her own right, offered two fabulous solos.  Ella presented some lesser-known Ralph McTell numbers. The Mad Donnas were as professional as ever. John (aka Elvis, Clint, Superman and many others) told his stories of RALPH and other dog-turd lifting machines.  (Yes, that’s right). Not to mention the whip-cracking cow-girl, Marilyn, who turned our musical director into a cowboy, our secretary into a show-girl and one unsuspecting bass – we think actually our chairman had been the target – into an Indian Chief.

We enjoyed singing and we think our audience enjoyed listening. Naturally we paraded the four – five songs we’re entering for the ManchesterAmateur Choral Competition (MACC). “I got a bit bored,” said Jeff in our rehearsal on Tuesday, “of being told how much people liked R …..” So, that’s a big thumbs up for  R …. then. (Aha, under wraps until after the MACC --- unless we’ve put you in the know.)        

We also trotted out parts of our older repertoire some of which we’d not touched since November and we were pleased to note that we still know these pieces. 

It all felt very good.

Then, of course, there was the cake.

If you were there, and /or you’ve been to one of our other Friends and Family concerts, don’t forget to let us know what you think! Post a comment here.   

A Day at The Manchester Amateur Choral Competition

The Royal Northern College of Music is quiet at 8.40 on the first Sunday of February. A few dedicated students make their way to practice rooms. The folk who are arranging this great event quietly set up. The café looks as if it might open any minute. 

Early Sunday morning at the RNCM

It’s not quiet for long, though. Coaches start pulling up outside. The choirs start arriving. The café opens. There’s a buzz as the chatter gets louder and louder and we start to swap notes with other choirs.

The choirs line up to take their turn in practising walking on and off the stage. It takes quite some organisation to put all of the morning choirs through their paces. At last, though, we’re all done and the day begins in earnest.     

It’s always a fun day. There’s the excitement of waiting for your slot and then giving your performance. It’s interesting to see what other groups get up to. And yes, we get to hear some great singing.

We can probably safely say that we found some common ground with every single choir we watched and we probably learnt something from them too.