Looking Back on Last Season: Part 2

Thanks for joining us as we pick up where we left off in our last post, looking back at our season just gone.

The summer term started a little later than planned, a knock-on effect from having to postpone the spring concert due to rail strikes. The term began just one week before His Majesty’s coronation, which was fitting as we designed this term’s repertoire with a coronation theme.

Despite the curtailed rehearsal period, the concert was a rousing success. The choir dressed for the occasion, sporting a splash of regal metallic tones to supplement our traditional black. We performed a longtime favourite, Vivaldi’s Gloria, and we really dug deep to perform all four of Handel’s Coronation Anthems. It was a joy to rehearse and perform these pieces, but it is a big sing and left us feeling very tired at the end of it!

Special thanks to our organist Ben Saul. We also welcomed guest conductor Chloe Todd to conduct some of the movements of this piece, to help her cut her teeth. As we said in the concert programme:

We are pleased to feature guest conductor Chloe Todd.
We are excited to provide an opportunity for a young, emerging professional conductor. This is part of a drive to create platforms for musicians seeking to enter the profession, particularly for young female professionals who are seeking experience in conducting, to ensure diversity of opportunity amongst those who wish to enter the field.

We really enjoyed working with Chloe, and we were pleased to be a part one of her first professional conducting appearances. We look forward to watching her career, we’re sure she’ll go far!

We broke up for the summer after the concert, and didn’t reconvene until our annual away weekend. This year, we did something slightly unusual and returned to the same seaside destination for the second year running. Whitstable hosted us so well last year, that we returned to St John’s Methodist Church for another lovely retreat.

We met up over a drink in the Old Neptune on Friday evening, ahead of a full day’s rehearsal and workshop with Adam on the Saturday. We revisited some familiar pieces, and we also started learning repertoire that will feature in our upcoming season. We gave a short concert early Saturday evening, which included an additional opportunity for us to perform Vivaldi’s Gloria (see the featured video on this post), before adjourning to enjoy a meal together at a local restaurant. For the adventurous among us, there is usually a planned seaside walk on the Sunday morning. This year a few brave souls accomplished a 7-mile walk to neighbouring Herne Bay. It’s always a really nice time to focus on both music and socializing, the perfect way to come together again after a summer apart.

And now we look ahead to the coming season. We’re really looking forward to the start of the new term on 21st September, and getting stuck into some repertoire for Christmas. New members are welcome – it’s a great time to start as we’re just getting back after a few weeks away. The autumn term is always lots of fun and culminates in our Christmas concert, which is up there as one of the best events in our calendar. We hope you’ll join us!