I went to a concert last as part of the audience, as opposed to a performer, for once.
Admittedly the music was not exactly to my taste, being more of the High-Brow variety, but as the concert was being put on by Sophie & her group, I felt morally bound to give them my support.
Sophie has (and still does, for that matter) give the choir a lot of support & has, on several occasions stepped in at the last minute when the regular pianist has had problems (such as the one at St Edwards Church about a month ago, when Carita, our regular pianist was caught up in gridlock traffic after a major accident on the Motorway, and Sophie showed up to fill in until Carita arrived at less than 30 mins notice.
Graham, her boyfriend, has also stood in as Musical Director on several occasions (and an excellent job he does of it too - young, vivacious, and with an excellent sense of humour - everyone at choir loves him).
Sophie's group consists of 6 members, each of which play at least 2 instruments, including, Flute, Clarinet, Bassoon, Oboe, Cors Anglais, Violin, Viola, Cello, Trombone, Piano & Harpsichord.
Additionally they had 3 additional performers (who I presume were more 'Guests' than full time performers. They were the vicar of the church where the concert was being held, his wife & their 11 year old son (who has just passed his Grade 6 Trombone, with Distinction), who gave a truly remarkable solo performance (with piano accompaniment by Sophie).
Despite not exactly being to my personal taste, it was excellently performed, with Graham being the Master of Ceremonies, as well as doubling up on Piano & Harpsichord, as well as Page Turner for the Pianist.
All in all, apart from the incredibly uncomfortable wooden pews for seats, it was an excellent performance, and for £5 admission, including a glass of wine & nibbles during the interval, very reasonably priced.
The church was absolutely packed, which made me wonder if that was because of their having a strong local following, or if it was more a matter of the low cost, leading me to wonder if lower admission fees would benefit our own ticket sales, thus increasing the gross takings (eg. A Full House at £7.50 / seat would take more than half a Half House, or fewer, at £10 - £10 being a typical entrance fee for one of our own concerts which, considering entrance to many theatres - and not even top names, at that, are likely to cost at least £50 is a mere snip).
Tonight the Choir is singing at Lin's (our Chairwoman) "Ruby Do" (40th Wedding Anniversary Party), and next week at a Wedding. After which we're finished until September when we start on our Christmas programme (yes, it's that time of year again - at least, for the likes of us, who need to prepare, learn & rehearse, it is - just a matter of weeks, if you think about it).
I'd really like to put some videos of us on YouTube, but have not been allowed to (by the Choir's committee), due to Performance Rights issues, which I find somewhat pedantic, but we always go by the letter of the law, but I'm hoping that some of the Christmas ones will be exempt from this, seeing as one of them is my own arrangement (Gaudete), and therefore the Copyright & Performance Rights are MINE.
Concerts
Concerts
This afternoon we were singing at Hinton (Hinton Ampner - Visitor information - National Trust) raising money for this year's chosen charities, "The Samaritans" & "Wessex HeartBeat".
Last Saturday we were singing at the Ageas Bowl, raising money for their Community Charities, a few days beforehand at the Bursledon Brickworks Museum (The Brickworks), raising money for them. A few days before at a local church helping to raise money for their charity (Cancer Research), where we raised in excess of £1000, but all these were kicked off by our first all in performance at St Mary's Church, raising money for another local charity, "Cash For Kids".
For anyone who may be interested, Southampton Football Club ("The Saints") originally started as a Youth Club team with St. Mary's Church - hence its nickname, opening with a Processional performance of my arrangement of Gaudete, all holding LED 'Candles'.
Unfortunately, the St. Mary's concert wasn't as well attended as we had hoped, as the whole thing was supposed to have been promoted by a local Independant Radio Station who let us down badly, resulting in minimal publicity.
However, there were some students from the University at the show who were doing Media Studies & they made a 'News Report' on the show, which I've added to the choir's website (New Music Makers) - I'm the great big good looking one at the back (yeah, right). I'm afraid it's a bit dark, but that's because the lights in the church were lowered to give maximum effect to the 'candles' we were carrying.
We've still got a couple of Carol Singing sessions to do at Botleigh Grange Hotel, but next week we're going to be doing another day of fund raising at Hilliers' Garden Centre, with a few of the choir's followers walking around with the charity boxes.
All in all, it's all been hard work, but I reckon it's been worth it. On the whole we're on the general wind down now - then we start on the Summer's repertoire.
Last Saturday we were singing at the Ageas Bowl, raising money for their Community Charities, a few days beforehand at the Bursledon Brickworks Museum (The Brickworks), raising money for them. A few days before at a local church helping to raise money for their charity (Cancer Research), where we raised in excess of £1000, but all these were kicked off by our first all in performance at St Mary's Church, raising money for another local charity, "Cash For Kids".
For anyone who may be interested, Southampton Football Club ("The Saints") originally started as a Youth Club team with St. Mary's Church - hence its nickname, opening with a Processional performance of my arrangement of Gaudete, all holding LED 'Candles'.
Unfortunately, the St. Mary's concert wasn't as well attended as we had hoped, as the whole thing was supposed to have been promoted by a local Independant Radio Station who let us down badly, resulting in minimal publicity.
However, there were some students from the University at the show who were doing Media Studies & they made a 'News Report' on the show, which I've added to the choir's website (New Music Makers) - I'm the great big good looking one at the back (yeah, right). I'm afraid it's a bit dark, but that's because the lights in the church were lowered to give maximum effect to the 'candles' we were carrying.
We've still got a couple of Carol Singing sessions to do at Botleigh Grange Hotel, but next week we're going to be doing another day of fund raising at Hilliers' Garden Centre, with a few of the choir's followers walking around with the charity boxes.
All in all, it's all been hard work, but I reckon it's been worth it. On the whole we're on the general wind down now - then we start on the Summer's repertoire.