Well done everyone – it was such a lovely concert last night and so nice to be performing to a full audience in The Sacred Heart church!

Archie was a complete star.  From the new high-tech camera and lighting system installed to make communication easier between Graham and Phil (yes tourers – we are entering a momentous new era here in visual communication on future tours 🙂 to the physical effort of making sure everything is set up perfectly and put away afterwards. Each concert seems to go smoother…the choir are always telling us how grateful they are so – hats off to you young man!!

So here’s a message from Graham:

Congratulations on a lovely concert last night! I felt you sang well from beginning to end, no weak moments. The Mozart was committed and had energy, even the quiet moments, the Pie Jesu had more flow and better shape to the phrases. The unaccompanied pieces all had committed good quality sound and lots of attention to detail. The Handel seemed to go with a bang! I felt I had pushed it with both encores, but they seemed to go down really well. A big thank you to the soloists for all your hard work – it paid off. A big thank you to Terry for a wonderful rendition of Schubert’s Ave Maria. To all those who joined us from outside the choir a big thank you. Of course, a big thank to Phil for some wonderful playing and his ability to make almost anything work on that organ! The concert had a lovely warm and friendly atmosphere. A great success. Well done all.

…and from Jeannie:

Sometimes I think that The Leconfield Singers are part of an extended family especially during concert time when we seem to see more of each other than our real families! Yesterday was a good example.

We pulled together; many were under pressure as they were possibly singing their first concert, or had not had as much rehearsal time as others. Some were singing solos that had required more practise time at home and during rehearsals. But the support came in buckets. There were so many “Well done!”‘s and “You’ll be fine”s being said throughout the day!

We shared things – transport, sandwiches, water, telephones with signals, even hair brushes! We looked after each other.

And there were many who couldn’t sing this concert but still came to help set-up, do the front of house ticket sales, shake buckets or simply be a part of our audience. Families do this too.

We were a smaller, tour-sized choir last night but we put on a cracking performance! The church was packed! Graham was ‘shining’ even pushing the limits with us as we must have been watching him! And Philip was his usual greatness! I believe we pulled off most of the rehearsal reminders from Graham with a good bit of style and enthusiasm. I caught myself even enjoying a bit of ‘Inditing’ and of course everyone loves singing the Ave Maria.

Well done, Terry, for a mammoth performance!! and many thanks to Claire Mannion and Sara Alliss for stepping in at the last moment to boost our solo and soprano numbers!

All fine examples of what we do really well – singing together!

This was my Swan Song concert and I will look forward to the 15th December when I will be sitting on the benches with a contented smile on my face knowing that Rachel is doing a fantastic job as the new chairman; that I’ve had more than 2 years enjoying the same role as part of The Amazing Leconfield Singers who I feel have all become my good friends; and I am so proud of what we have accomplished in this short period and exceptionally proud of being a part.

Big hug to everyone! See you Wednesday.

Jeannie

…and not forgetting our very own Town Crier!

The Committee would also like to thank Amanda (who is always bursting with exciting ideas) for all her marketing efforts – which appear to have paid off judging by the size of the audience.  On the day of the concert Amanda and Jeannie went around Petworth with the Town Crier, making sure that no-one in Petworth yesterday could escape the fact that we would be performing a concert that evening!!  See our Facebook page for a video!

Behold New Joy – Help for pracitising!!

This is a relatively new piece, so finding help on the internet has been a challenge!  However, I’m really pleased to announce that the choir have bought a group license for some practice files for each voice type.  Not surprisingly therefore you’ll need to log in to our Members Area on the website, but you can find these and play the one for your voice type by clicking on the icon on our Music Programme & Practise page.

Final plea – return your music!

If you haven’t already returned it, please do remember to return any hired copies of Ave maria and if you’re not singing at Christmas, O Magnum Mysterium, to the resident librarian (Bridget or Julia).  Any fines we receive for late returns will have to be passed on as it’s not fair to other members who have cooperated with the timescales – you have been warned!!

Start spreading the word…

You may have noticed on this website that the poster for our Bring & Sing on 9th November is out – so if you have any family/friends that fancy a fun day learning parts of Handel’s Messiah do spread the word!

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That’s it for now – see you on Wednesday, when we’ll continue our Christmas concert programme!