Summer term rehearsals on Zoom

The on-going lockdown is preventing is from rehearsing, but there is some light at the end of the tunnel. Perhaps we may get to meet again before the end of the year.

In the meantime, we have arranged a series of virtual rehearsals on Zoom. Our accompanist Benedict Lewis-Smith will be taking these rehearsals weekly in two sessions

The first session will run from April 12th until May 17th with a break on May 3rd. The music will be based on the “Garlands and Goddesses” concert that we originally planned for the summer. Our conductor Martin writes:

The Music we will be looking at is by Luca Marenzio, John Wilbye, Thomas Weelkes, Robert Pearsall, Henry Smart and Roger Quilter. There's a total of fourteen pieces with a lot of variety. I've asked Ben to dip into them as he sees fit - when it comes to the point we may not do all fourteen, but we will be hoping to use this music as the basis for a concert in the Autumn”

The itinerary for these sessions is as follows:

• April 12th: Marenzio: Scendi dal paradiso & Zefiro torna

• April 19th: Pearsall: Down in my garden

• April 26th: Wilbye: Adieu, sweet Amaryllis

• May 10th: Quilter: To electra

• May 17th: Pearsall: O who will O’er the downs so free

The second session will run from May 24th to June 28th and be based on movements from the Brahms Requiem:

• May 24th: Selig sind, die da Leid tragen

• June 7th: Denn alles Fleisch

• June 14th: Wie lieblich sind

• June 21st: Denn wir haben

• June 28th: Selig sind die Todten

We will have to make a charge for these sessions (to cover Ben’s fee and cost of music) and that will be £25 per 5-week session.

Real singing will have to wait a bit longer, but we have our initial/basic plans ready.  We will be refining these over the coming weeks and let us keep our fingers crossed for later in the year!