Continuing our Winning Ways
Chester Competitive Festival of Performing Arts – 24th April 2010
Chester Festival
It seems that one of our choir's trademarks that have emerged over the years is our tendancy to take risks, with that in mind we entered ourselves into two classes at the Chester Competitive Festival of Performing Arts with largely brand new repertoire. The received wisdom is to play it safe and stick with well-known material but we seem to thrive on the extra tension. In fact we had performed only one of our pieces previously but it hardly seemed to matter.
In the Madrigal class we performed Now Is The Gentle Season; The Fields Abroad by Thomas Morley and Weep, O Mine Eyes by John Bennet and were awarded The Nicholson Rose Bowl. In the Mixed Choir class we performed Succession of the Four Sweet Months, the second of Benjamin Britten's Five Flower Songs, and Data Est Mihi Omnis Potestas, one of James MacMillan's Strathclyde Motets. We received excellent comments for both classes but special praise was reserved for the latter of these classes by the adjudicator, Jeffrey Wynn Davies, who spoke of hairs going up on the back on his neck and of the power we achieved in this dramatic and challenging piece and awarded us 89 marks and a "Distinction" in addition to the trophy, The Nicholson Bowl.
The results of our efforts also yielded us a further piece of silverware in the shape of the coveted Oriana Cup for the highest mark across all of the choir classes. Needless to say, we were extremely happy with our day's work.
Web Links:
Amici del Canto on The Beeb!
United Reformed Church, Rhos-on-Sea – 25th January 2010
BBC Radio Wales
In the coming months we will be making our first appearance on national media! To be broadcast on the national BBC radio station of Wales on two Sundays, one in February and one just before Easter, and by special invitation of the congregation of the United Reformed Church in Rhos-on-Sea, we will be joining forces with the congregation as well as making "choir-only" contributions.
In the main we will be singing with the congregation but we will also be singing certain verses of the hymns as a choir.
This is an exciting opportunity to work in a totally new way and with completely different people and we are very much looking forward to the recording sessions. Exact dates and times of broadcast have yet to be released but once we have them, we will update the Website and put links to the BBC iPlayer in case you miss it. [Links no longer available.]
UPDATE: – 26th January 2010
Following a very successful recording session last night, we now have the dates for the radio broadcasts. The first broadcast will be on Sunday, 7th February 2010 on the BBC Radio Wales Celebration programme at 8.00 am; the second will be in lent on Sunday, 21st March 2010 on BBC Radio Wales, also probably on the Celebration programme at 8.00 am but if there is any change to that then we will post it here.
If you missed you can catch up on the BBC iPlayer. [Link no longer available.]