Bob blogs again!

Hello, my fellow singers

I do hope you're all well and settling into what appears to be the new normal where we can move freely about for both work and leisure but retaining some of the safeguarding measures we have become used to over the last 18 months.   As you know the choir resumed its live rehearsals on Tuesdays, mainly at Endeavour Square, Stratford and on Saturdays mainly at Palestra and these have been fairly well attended but we could do with a few more singers. However, that said, we are currently restricted to 16 people per rehearsal but I am working on this with the building management teams so hopefully we can get an increase in time for Christmas.  I hope you were able to see the video for the Bus Awards Event -  a great achievement from you the choir where we had just three rehearsal sessions then went straight into the recording at the fourth session, People who were at the event said they were impressed with the choir and the energy in our singing.
 
Merel has now started rehearsing the Christmas carols, starting with the choir only items plus several of the songs we learnt in lockdown on Zoom. It's really great to hear these in the flesh rather than just our own part as they really come to life, so please do dust down your Zoom music as we are planning a choir concert/ recruitment drive early next year using this music plus a few other pieces. 

Just a heads up: for the choir-only pieces we are looking at for St Martin-in-the-Fields   “All this time”  by William Walton,  “Kings of the Orient” arranged by John Rutter, “Infant King” arranged by Pettiman, recordings are available on You Tube plus MP3s will be available soon on the website and for St Mary’s we will drop "All this time" and replace this with "Away in a Manger" using the Tune Normandy, which is on page 3 in your CFC1. And we're about to add "Gabriel's Message" to both events.
 
As you know over the years we gain and lose members and to this end we must think about recruiting more singers, so please do switch your ears on and encourage any of your friends, colleagues or anyone you hear singing, humming or whistling to come along and try us out.  We know we are a friendly choir and we all love to sing and make music to the best of our abilities and we want to share this with others.
 
So take care, my fellow singers: keep safe and keep singing and I hope to see you at rehearsals as and when you're able.
 
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