The Annual Pupils Concert 2012

When one falls off one's horse, the best thing to do by all accounts is get straight back on the beast and try again. Well, after falling off my solo singing 'horse' last week at the Leicester Festival, I've nursed my bruised ego back to relative health and prepared myself for another crack at singing a solo in my second performance at the Caroline Sharpe Annual Pupil Concert at Trinity Methodist Church Centre.

With morale dented somewhat by my mild brain freeze during Linden Lea last week, I needed a good performance to give me a 'shot in the arm' so to speak. Ever since last November when I made my solo debut  nervously singing Where 'ere you Walk, I had  set my heart on singing the Les Mis epic, Bring Him Home. A fantastic song, fantastically sung by a certain Alfie Boe, who is something of a favorite of mine (no, really?). So with less than a week to go, I still had to truly master the finishing line which is a bit high and quiet. Falsetto-ing it, wasn't working, so Caroline got me singing it with a bit of welly sorry, forte, with a diminuendo. This was easier and gave it a slightly different 'twist' and I felt much more comfortable about it.

Until Thursday that is. A sore throat arrived, soon followed by a dripping tap nose. Excellent! Just what one wants two days before a singing engagement. Hey-ho! Failure or to not perform at all were simply not options this time. After missing my second Festival solo last week, I felt I owed Caroline one and had to produce, come what way. In a strange way, it helped to focus the mind a bit and at my final lesson after work on Friday, I sang fairly well, despite the snotty nose. Provided Mr Virus didn't migrate to my chest, I'd be fine! Fingers crossed then?

Unlike last year I slept well and awoke feeling confident. No need for any panic texts to Caroline this year, but I received one from her saying she couldn't play piano for me as she didn't think she was good enough! Ho-ho!

Okay lets cut to the chase. Thankfully this year, my solo was to come at the end of the first set of songs from Les Miserables. Kicking off proceedings were The Caroline Sharpe Singers with Do You Hear the People Sing? featuring the silky smooth bass tones of Chris Higgins.  That was followed by Wendy Burns singing I Dreamed a Dream and then a duet of Castle on a Cloud by Amy Gray and Katie Muller. All these were great, particularly the two young girls who were also making their first appearance with Enchanted. It was meant to be a trio, but Kate Foster was unwell and couldn't perform. Bex Petty then sang a lovely rendition of On My Own before it was my turn.

Okay, so I was nervous, but nothing like last year, or for that matter, like last week. I was constantly aware of mucous in the throat and had to swallow several time during the song to keep it in check. The overall aim this year was to look less like a startled rabbit, while trying to sing with good diction and a bit of expression. Weeks of studying Alfie Boe's video on Youtube told me to close my eyes at the beginning 'God on high, hear my prayer' bit and raise my hands a touch at the 'if I die, let me die' near the end. Well, I would need to see a DVD of it to see if I achieved any of that, but I almost managed a smile at the climax. Audience feedback after the gig suggested a marked improvement on this time last year, so that was good to hear. 

I can honestly say I actually enjoyed that solo last night. Yes, I was nervous, but confident that I knew the song well and that was the key. I didn't feel the same confidence with Linden Lea seven days previously and it showed. But I do know I can sing a lot better so there's still lots to aim for, particularly in terms of performance.

Well enough of me. There was way more to this evening that just me and Bring Him Home. The evening was to be a wonderful mix of choirs, solos, duets and trios, covering songs from musicals, folk songs, German  songs, Italian songs, love songs and English songs. The highlights for me were obviously songs involving my family. I've already mentioned Amy's duet with Katie, which was wonderful, but her solo of Who Will Buy? from Oliver was fantastic. Amy rarely allows me to hear her sing - I have to sit in Caroline's kitchen when she has a lesson! So it was wonderful to hear her sing so well!

Also for me, the most professional performance of the whole evening was Anna-Ruth's rendition of What Good Would The Moon Be? The confidence, poise and expression added to that stunning voice was just breathtaking. Anna has an awesome stage presence - she has it when acting as well as singing. If she doesn't have a major career as a classical singer it will be an absolute travesty in my humble opinion!

As well as the kids, Ruth was also involved  in CSS and in a trio with me and Michelle Oldale of a haunting, unaccompanied folk song called She Moved Through the Fair. The pre-concert run through was to be frank, a bit of a disaster, but another try a little later went fine to dispel any late panics. As it turned out, we got it spot on and the audience loved it! Can't wait to hear that one on the CD!

May I also raise my glass and say a hearty 'bravo' to all the other soloists and duetists (?) particularly those getting up there for the first time! If I mentioned everyone I would be here all night blogging. So I will just say well done everyone! I bet you're feeling just great today ain't ya?

Oh, and mention must be made of the largest formation of Enchanted yet, an awesome nine girls. With Rose, Holly and Alice going off to their respective universities last September, three new members, Amy, Katie and Bex have joined the choir. But for this concert all the girls combined to make a very impressive sound.

Blimey, I've not even mentioned Holly and Olivia! These two girls are always so brilliant, I almost take it for granted that that will always be the case. And it was. Superb performances from them, last weeks trophy and certificates on show. What more needs to be said really?

The finale saw Enchanted sing the Beatles song All You Need Is Love and that just left the Caroline Sharpe Singers to return for the epic I Believe/Ave Maria, which with Trinity's fabulous acoustics sounded superb!

So that was it for another year. A fantastic experience and another brilliantly put together concert from the musical genius that is Caroline Sharpe. Her ability to get ordinary people singing together to produce the quality of sound that they do is a true gift that cannot be praised highly enough. And to get this 50-something up on a stage singing a song from Les Mis, is nothing short of miraculous. Thank you so much.

Thanks also to the whoopers in the audience who made everyone feel like a million dollars.

See you all next year, if not before - Christmas is a-comin' and a whole diary full of Chrimbo gigs. Bring it on!

Cheers,

Alyn.

P.S. I will leave you with a couple of photos of Saturday's performers:-

 The Caroline Sharpe Singers 

Enchanted - November 2012

Leicester Festival - the pain and the ecstasy!

Saturday 17th November 2012 was an extraordinary day. It proved to be such an emotional roller-coaster, that it almost defies description. It had me examining my reasons for singing and why I was putting myself through the whole thing. 

As I've mentioned previously, far too many times already for most of you I daresay, I suffer from nerves.  Stomach churning, nausea inducing fear of what might happen in my tortured mind at least if I get something wrong. I long for the day when I can stand before an audience with confidence and deliver a performance that leads an audience to gasp in wonder!

But then, doesn't every up and coming singer? I'm no different to anyone else, we all want the same and what is becoming increasingly obvious is that it won't ever come without a whole lot more pain along the way. The pre-concert colly-wobbles (to put it politely) is always going to be there. I either live with it and work through it, or I throw the towel in and give up. The latter suggestion, is just not an option. I've done that far too often throughout my life and can't let it happen again. Time and again yesterday, I kept hearing the words of Chris Hill. "What's the worst that can happen? You feel a little foolish in front of an audience. If that is the worst thing to happen in one's life, it ain't that bad is it?" 

Well, that is exactly how I felt yesterday, when mid-way through the second verse of Linden Lea, 'Mr Cock-up' stuck his oar in and things went (to me at least) pear-shaped. In numerous rehearsals, the line 'and painted birds do hush their singing' refused to be stored in my memory bringing much frustration and expletives aplenty. To my delight, I remembered the dreaded line this time and so pleased was I that I promptly forgot the next bit, 'and brown leaved fruits are turning red'. "Whatever you do" said Caroline beforehand, "don't stop - something will come out". So, I stopped! And so did the pianist to my surprise. Embarrassingly, I was a bit rude to the poor guy, saying "keep going". Bless him, he prompted me by saying "brown leaved fruits, brown leaved fruits!" I recommenced the verse, and got through the third quite well considering.  I acknowledged the kind applause and sat down kicking myself. Yes, at that moment I felt a bit foolish and it felt like a disaster, but on reflection, it was anything but.

The feedback from the adjudicator was highly complimentary. For instance he (Peter Wells) said "This was a good fluid performance with clear diction throughout". That was particularly pleasing as I'd tried hard to emulate Ian Bostridge's epic Youtube recording.  But he was also very constructive, suggesting ways to improve, such as "there were some good changes in dynamic, but perhaps you could also aim for more colour of mood as well". He also suggested singing more "nose down" and "opening up the back of the throat more", which are all things Caroline has been trying to drum into me for ages. But as Peter Wells said himself, when you stand up before an audience, all advice goes out of the window! So looking back, it was a useful experience and needs to be repeated. Coalville festival next spring maybe? 

I was due to sing another class, that of Sacred Songs in which I was to sing The Lord is my Shepherd at about half past four. But here a problem arose. The Loughborough Male Voice Choir were to compete in two categories - the single voice choir and the open choir. the choir competitions were to start at around 3.20pm, but while admittedly not exactly relishing another solo, I was prepared to give it a stab to try and redeem myself a bit. If the format was the same as for solos, there should be an opportunity to nip out between classes and get to Music Room 3 for my solo. As it happened, all the choir competitions were continuous, with no gaps for adjudication, which was done by Peter Wells at the very end so I was a bit stuck. I felt that I was going to be letting Caroline down somewhat and knew she would be less than pleased. I now await my punishment and will take it like a man!

But at least I can look back on something that in the event, turned into something really quite special. Right from the moment the choir took up its place in the Main Hall, there was an excited buzz about the place. There was a very real sense that all the choirs were 'up for it'. Would we rise to the occasion? Our songs for Class 187 - Single Voice Choir were He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother and When the Saints Go Marching In. I have to say, that in the 19 months I have been with the choir, it was the best we've ever sung I think. The audience, the majority of which was made up of the other choirs, we're clapping even before we finished Saints and let out something of a roar when we did finish! We then returned to our seats well pleased and with the hairs on the back of my neck doing very strange things! 

Listening to the other, very different choirs was also very exciting. We were up against a large community choir, a barbershop style choir and a group of women called 'Rockapellas' who treated us to a 'different' rendition of the Kaiser Chiefs song Oh My God. I'll just call it bizarre and leave it at that!?! All the choirs were very polished though and I'd no idea who would win.

In our second set, Class 189: Open Choir, we were to again face another formation of the community choir who split up into various guises to meet the criteria for each class. For this we saw the whole lot of them in the form of the Musical Village. There was also a youth choir, The Leicester Vocal Tech who seemed a bit ragged at times, but all the other choirs were very polished. We sang two very contrasting pieces, as is the requirement for each class, with Is This the Way To Amarillo? followed by the atmospheric Bushes and Briars. Amarillo was spectacular with the audience joining in with the clapping and you could hear a pin drop at the end of Briars. Amazing stuff!

All that was left was for a bit of stand up comedy from the bubbly adjudicator Peter Wells, to announce each categories winners. After what seemed like an eternity, he eventually announced the LMVC as winners of the single voice choir class which meant we would then sing again in the competition for the Championship Choir. Hoorah! Well chuffed to say the least. In the Open Choir class, we came second which was great too, until he announced the winners as the Leicester Vocal Tech. I will say no more for fear of offending other than to say it was at least good to see young people enjoying singing.

So a first and a second in our two classes. Could we cap it off with the overall Championship? We sang Saints again as the adjudicator had enthused about it. The other finalist, the Musical Village Chorale sang a Howard Goodall Medley including the Blackadder signature tune which was great. Alas we came second, but no matter. It turned out way better than any of us imagined I think. 

So that ended an amazing day. On reflection, important lessons were learnt. Firstly, that all solo singing experience, is valuable, however it turns out. Secondly, errors are never as calamitous as they seem at the time and don't matter as long as you learn from it. Thirdly, singing can be exciting and can give you the most incredible 'buzz'. The longer term goal is to achieve the same when singing solo.

I can't finish without mentioning the achievements of Enchanted's Holly Coutts, Olivia Thornber and Anna-Ruth Gray who pretty much swept the board and came home with a huge array of trophies. In the Operatic Solo and the British Composer classes the girls took the first three places. I also had the pleasure of hearing Anna and Livvy's beautiful Barcarolle duet and a triumph for the second year running in that class. Well done girls, you were all truly outstanding!

Thanks must go to Caroline (grovel, grovel!) for her time and patience and her "Painted birds, painted birds, painted birds" text message on Saturday morning! To Ruth, for her counselling on Friday night/Saturday morning as my confidence crumbled and finally to The Official LMVC Whoopers namely Caroline Sharpe, Ruth  Coward and Julia Willis for their vocal encouragement. We were glad to have you back!

Cheers for now,

Alyn.

One for the ladies?

We have arrived at that time of year when the singing engagements start to come thick and fast. A mere fortnight since the Trinity concert with the ladies from Merthyr Tydfil we followed that up on Saturday 27th October, with a concert for the Ladies Circle at Barrow-on-Soar Methodist Church. This concert was to form part of their 'Ladies Week' and would be in aid of 'Rainbows'. The date was added at rather short notice, but what the heck. The only problem, for me at least was the special request from the ladies that we sing Morte Criste, a song from our 'back catalogue' that has not been sung for a while. Not a problem for the members of long standing, but it meant a new song to be learnt in 48 hours for all us relative newbies!

But first things first. Saturday morning at 10 o'clock 'Sharpe' it was a Caroline Sharpe Singers rehearsal. This little group is blossoming into a pretty damn good choir now I think, particularly with the addition of a certain Chris Higgins. Chris, a rather fine bass singer from the male voice choir was keen to expand his horizons and after seeing us in action at a concert earlier in the year, decided to give it a go. Welcome aboard Mr Higgins and you've certainly added a quality start to Do You Hear the People Sing?, much to the obvious approval of a certain few of the ladies in the choir, who shall remain nameless - for now! ;-)

Anyway, with the CSS rehearsal done, I could then concentrate my attention on the evenings concert in Barrow. Us chaps were to be joined by guest soloist for the evening, Olivia Thornber - she of Enchanted fame. This gig was going to be slightly different in that there would be no interval, just a simple run through the programme and then a few nibbles afterwards. I gave Olivia and Jonathan a lift to the venue and we were ready to assemble at about half six. What many of the choir didn't know was that Lyndon Gardner had been approached to take on the unenviable task of being stage manager, to try and get us all assembled in a suitable formation within the somewhat limited available space. It shouldn't be too difficult, but getting a bunch of men to sit where they are told is no easy task. Lyndon's teaching experience no doubt proved invaluable in bringing the unruly rabble to order without the need for detentions or any form of corporal punishment! One good thing about this concert was that we could assemble on stage and stay there with no trailing on and off stage every few minutes. Bliss!

Right, off we go with Stout Hearted Men and Vive l'amour, which both went well. The acoustics were very different from Trinity and as Lyndon had advised, there was a need to not try to sing louder to make up for the less helpful acoustics. Following us it was the turn of Olivia Thornber to sing her first two songs, Voi che Sapete by Mozart, followed by Somewhere from West Side Story. These she sang beautifully. It is quite amazing to see and hear how much Livvy's voice has developed in the last year or two. She and  Enchanted's Holly Coutts and Anna-Ruth Gray ought to have big, big futures in the world of music if there is any justice. But then, I am a tad biased I suppose!

So from the absolutely sublime to the totally ridiculous! Next came the two living legends of Loughborough Male Voice Choir, Tom Carter and Gerald Morling to give us their 'unique' rendition of  A Policeman's Lot is Not a Happy One from G & O operetta The Pirates of Penzance, complete with helmets and truncheons. Wot a larf! Unlike their earlier rehearsal, I think they actually remembered all the words, or maybe they just made it up? Either way, it went down a storm with the audience. Nice one chaps!

The lads then rose to their feet to sing Bridge Over Troubled Water and the folk song Pleasant and Delightful. Both of these went really well I thought and my solo verse in the latter is almost routine now and heaven forbid, I even tried to sing it with a bit of expression. Well, only a bit granted, but at least my 'startled rabbit' look is going, albeit slowly.

Lyndon Gardner then sang two very contrasting songs. The first a rousing and powerful song and the second the guitar accompanied piece, first heard at the last concert at Trinity. It's not written for guitar but it really works and it was a noticeably more confident performance from guitarist Dave Weston too!

Next up was the choir again singing firstly Bushes and Briars, which is slowly coming together for me personally.It is definitely, the most difficult piece of all to sing, but I'm improving, slowly. Following that came Is this the Way To Amarillo? which is a lot more polished than last year, but still with room for improvement, but I think that will always be the case with this one.

Olivia then returned to the stage to sing Stay Well by Kurt Weill and Love's Philosophy by Quilter. Again, Livvy sang superbly. Classy stuff lass!

That just left the male voice choir to round things off with Morte Criste and You'll Never Walk Alone. Morte Criste was a serious examination of my sight reading ability, having only obtained a copy of the music on Thursday evening! I got through it reasonably well I thought and  my voice crumbled right at the very end of the final song's climactic finish!

So a pretty fine concert that had a bit of everything. The lads did well, Olivia was fabulous, as was Lyndon accompanied by Dave. Tom & Gerry, sorry, Gerald, were hysterical and the audience went home happy. Well done all.

My next concern is learning some songs for Leicester Festival and Caroline Sharpe's annual pupil concert in November.  No peace for the wicked!

Until next time,

Alyn.

Autumn Glory with the Merthyr Tydfil Ladies Choir

So, with summer but a distant memory we enter into the new season of Loughborough Male Voice Choir concerts. In recent weeks a select group of nameless individuals seemingly met in a darkened room at a venue unknown to discuss the core repertoire for this new season. An interesting collection of songs emerged  with some additions from the recent past such as Swansea Town and Bridge Over Troubled Water. Among those dropped from the repertoire is My Way. Thank heavens that depressing dirge is gone. Please don't be tempted to hurry it back eh?

However, a multitude of newish songs in our Autumn concert 'Autumn Glory' on Saturday 13th October was not really a possibility. Those members who had joined the choir since the turn of the millennium would regard Deus Salutis and Speed your Journey as 'new'. So, the amended repertoire means loads of new songs to learn and it would be way too early for a lot of us to get to grips with them in a mere month or so. Thus the programme for this concert at Trinity Methodist Church Centre was to feature the 2011 stuff with just 'Troubled Water' added.

For this concert we welcomed from Wales, the Merthyr Tydfil Ladies Choir with their accompanist Matthew Woodford and their Musical Director Ian Hopkins. Our last meeting with a Welsh choir was at last years LOROS concert at De Montfort Hall and that was a memorable experience. We were set to meet the choir mid afternoon for a short rehearsal of Gwahoddiad which we would be singing as a finale. Ian warmed us all up and we ran through the song with us chaps singing verse one and three in english and the ladies verse two in Welsh. For the closing Amens, Ian gave us the option of singing them in whichever language we wished!


Then it was back home to get ready and this time it was to be the traditional uniform with just the addition of a bow tie - in place of the tie, obviously.

 

Ian Hopkins, Musical Director of the Merthyr Tydfil Ladies Choir
 

Matthew Woodford, accompanist for the Merthyr Tydfil Ladies Choir and soloist.

Back at Trinity by half past six and we were ready for the usual organised chaos of the logistics of getting on and off stage. It continues to amuse me as to how difficult it always is to sort this out, but sort it out we did and things went okay in the end with no serious injury incurred.
 
Okay, so come kick off time a splendid audience had assembled with Trinity pretty much full. I don't think we quite reached the point of turning people away as with the Stevenage Ladies gig last year, but it wasn't far off. We started proceedings with Stout Hearted Men, which was a change from the previous With a Voice of Singing. I can appreciate the need to change things, but 'm not sure  Stout Hearted Men quite does it for me as an opener. Anyway, it went well as did Vive l'amour, Bushes and Briars and He Ain't Heavy. I had all sorts of problems with 'Bushes' for weeks before but I just about got it together on the night!
 

 

Loughborough Male Voice Choir, ready for the off with yours truly sitting second row on the right.

 
 
Next came sets from the evening's soloists. Firstly Matthew Woodford performed two piano pieces. As ever, I don't have details of the soloists pieces to hand (little opportunity to take notes on the night!) but there was no doubting the young man's talent. He was followed by our very own Lyndon Gardner, who performed two pieces by Francesco Paolo Tosti. Now this is not a composer I am familiar with, but I must say I was impressed with the songs Lyndon performed, particularly the second one, accompanied by a nervous Dave Weston on guitar. It worked really well, and both guys can be well proud of their performances. Bravo!
 
Then came the ladies! Ian introduced their selection of songs with typical Welsh wit. Firstly they performed a song that members of the Caroline Sharpe Singers would be familiar with, Rutter's I Will Sing with the Spirit. It goes without saying that they weren't as good as us, but it was quite good nonetheless. ;-)
 

 

Merthyr Tydfil Ladies Choir assembling.

Only joking! They then performed a couple of traditional South African songs Hama Lulu and Weeping, arranged by Alexander L'Estrange. These were excellent and not what one usually expects from a Welsh choir. The Ladies finished their opening set with Shenandoah and the very lively Boogie Woogie which was fun.
 
So that was an excellent first half, earning a well earned half time brew. Chris Hill emailed the choir on Sunday telling us to ask Chris Higgins about 'the story concerning the half time teas'. Hmmm! I'm intrigued!?! When I find out the details I will of course reveal all right here!
 
Part two started with LMVC returning to present When the Saints followed by Bridge Over Troubled Water. The latter is a fine song that I have always liked since Simon and Garfunkel first recorded it. The former however, is one I'd rather joined My Way, dumped in the archives! Then it was my turn to join Chris Higgins, Dave Weston and David Booth for the audience participation number, Pleasant and Delightful . Readers will no doubt recall that the last time we did this one I had a touch of memory loss and forgot my last line. Doh! No worries this time thankfully. I thought this was great and definitely the best we've done it. I was certainly at my most relaxed, which is a nice change.

To wrap up our set it was the job of Armadillo, sorry, Is this the way to Amarillo? to leave the audience with a smile on their faces. Well, with us lads holding music folders, it wasn't possible to do the hand claps, but as it happened, the audience were clapping right from the off. Great stuff!

Matthew then performed two more impressive piano solos followed by Lyndon performing three more songs by Tosti. No further details alas, but it was all impressive stuff. The Merthyr Tydfil Ladies then presented their second set comprising My Favourite Things from the Sound of Music; As Long As I Have Music; Love Changes Everything; A Cry in the Night and finally Lausanne. It was all really entertaining stuff and I was particularly impressed with several of the ladies who really performed the songs with loads of expression which was great. I know I need to try to do the same.

All that was left was for us to join the ladies on stage to sing Gwahoddiad. This was fantastic and the closing Amen brought a shiver down my spine. I hope it had the same effect on the audience.

 

Loughborough Male Voice Choir rehearsing

 

So there you go, another splendid concert and recorded by David Concannon for release on CD soon! The only thing missing from an otherwise fabulous night was the noticeable lack of 'whoops' from the audience. Sadly, with my wife and her sisters away for the weekend, celebrating their brother's 50th birthday, there was no-one to step in and 'whoop'! Ladies we missed you!

Cheers for now,
Alyn.