Next Monday, 7th May, is a Bank Holiday so the rehearsal will be on Tuesday 8th May. Same place, same time – hope to see you all there.

After the glorious weather of late March, we are into the familiar drippy landscape of an English summer. So, appropriately, one of our new songs is “Singing in the Rain”.

Oh, how many times this has felt like our theme song?  Anyone who agrees to perform at outdoor events in the British summer is a hostage to the weather but it’s not going to stop us. Our definite dates for this term are Saturday 23rd June – Heeley Festival, and the next day, Sunday 24th June – Meersbrook Park Walled Garden Garden Party.

There’s an audio file in the members’ area for people to sing along with. I have also uploaded “Greensleeves”, which is our nod to royalty for the Queen’s jubilee this year.  I have an idea about twinning it with something a bit more contemporary.

Thank you to everyone who made our Sing for Water event so special.  All the many and various people who came and sang and played on their own, as part of a group – or came as part of the audience and found themselves singing rather unexpectedly!

It was a fantastic occasion to share the joy of music with people from across the city, some of whom we hadn’t met before – and to raise money for Water Aid, which we did most successfully.

Water Aid is a great charity for bringing people together – it’s such a basic human right, it has no religious or political affiliations, and if you think just for a minute or two about what it means not to have clean water or sanitation, it reminds us how lucky we are.

What a fantastic celebration of amateur performance we have seen in Sheffield this weekend. There was music and dance across the city centre – I would like to have been in several places at once. I particularly loved Concord Youth Music’s combination of toe-tingling brass, marimbas and beautifully rhythmic and restrained dance.

Carfield’s set at the train station was (though of course I’m biased) a triumph. We were not sure what to expect in the way of staging – what we found was a square marked out with two different colours of sticky tape.  There were Alight staff there to welcome us and marshal the area – useful when some train passengers seemed so unaware of the performance that they would have walked between me and the choir!

We had a small audience who stayed for the whole set – besides friends and relations, there was a sizeable cohort of South Yorkshire police, on duty to welcome Oldham fans to their match with Sheffield United.  I don’t know whether the unavoidable entertainment made their day more or less agreeable but we got a few smiles.

This was the first time we had done a full half-hour set, eight very different songs. The choir really is going from strength to strength, in sound and stamina and performance skills.

A very energetic rehearsal on Monday – we are polishing up the set for 3rd March.

Below is the full list of everyone who is performing in all the different venues. It’s an amazing celebration of music-making across the city and I really hope it doesn’t rain and we get plenty of audience members.

Alight Schedule 03-03-12

Town Hall:
14:00-14:15: Sheffield City Giants (outside of Town Hall)
14:15-14:30: Lord Mayor Address/ Compere – Anne Roper
14:30-14.50: David Chang
14.50-15:10: Chelsea Alice Scot
15:10-15:45: SingSoc
15:45-16:15: Anything Goes Orchestra

Winter Gardens:
11.15 – 12.00: Noodle Performance Art
12.00 – 12.30: Handsworth Sword Dancers
12.30 – 13.00: Out Aloud
13.00 – 13.30: Inyerface
13.30 – 13.45: Sheffield City Giants (also Town Hall)
13.45 – 14.15: Dimond Ranks (also HUBS)
14.15 – 14.45: Concord Youth Music
14.45 -15.00: Art in the Park (+ other venues)
15.00 – 15.30: Bleat Beat (Also HUBS)
15.30 -16.00: Bevox

The Hubs:
12:45-13:00: Julie Westerman
13:00-13:15: Cheermania
13:15-13:45: Bleat Beat
1:45-2:00: Hype Dance
14:00-14:45: Babel Songs
14:45-15:00: Gyrate
15.00- 15:15: Art in the Park
15:15-15:45: Juxtavoices
15:45-16:15: Dimond Ranks
16:15-16:45: Gold Soul

Train Station:
12:15-12:45: Gold Soul
12:45-13.15: Cordao de Ouro Sheffield Capoeira
13:15-13:30: Art in the Park
13:30-14:00: Carfield Community Choir
14:00-14:30: Carlos!
14:30-15:00: Anything Goes Orchestra

Weston Park:
2:00-3:00: Carnival of Animals – Sheffield Music Academy

United Reform Church:
10.00 – 1.00: Open rehearsal
2:30 – 4:00: Sheffield Youth Orchestra

Victoria Hall:
4:15 – 5:30: Sheffield Philharmonic Chorus

Cathedral:
10am  Stile Antico Vocal Workshops

 Gatty Hall at Ecclesfield:
2:00-5:00: Ecclesfield Hand Bell Ringers

Continue reading →