Our singing day and workshop went ahead on Saturday 28th August in the Chapel at Christ's Hospital. Just short of 140 people took part representing some 43 different choirs, and travelling from as far away as Southampton, Sevenoaks and Barnet. Our conductor for the day was Ruaraidh Sutherland, the choir's Musical Director, with Alex Hodgkinson being our accompanist for the day on piano and organ.
Works sung included the whole of Vivaldi's "Gloria", the Benedictus from Karl Jenkin's "Armed Man" and "How lovely are thy dwellings" from Brahms' "German Requiem". After a short interval the second half saw us sing Fauré's "Requiem" in its entirety accompanied by Alex at the organ, followed by "The Heavens are telling" from Haydn's "Creation". The afternoon ended with Ruaraidh moving to the wonderful Chapel organ to blast out the Handel's "Hallelujah" chorus. Whether he or the choir won the prize as the loudest was hard to judge, sitting amongst the choir, but it was fabulous to be a part of.
We received several emails and messages of thanks afterwards with lovely comments such as:
"Just to say what a joyous singalong it was yesterday afternoon. The glorious Hallelujah finale reverberating through the chapel brought a tear to my eye and a lump to my throat!
and
"The pieces chosen really helped to get the 'singing juices' flowing combined with the engaging delivery by the conductor and the great acoustics of the chapel."
and
"Although I enjoyed the whole afternoon, the real joy was to sing loudly the Hallelujah Chorus, with full organ, in that wonderful chapel at the end of the afternoon! There were five of us from Sevenoaks Philharmonic and I know that I speak for them all in saying congratulations to the organisers and to the many people who took part."
All in all a wonderful afternoon and so exciting to be back singing again with others, making such a glorious sound. Maybe we'll do it again one day!