Alex Douglas

The Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama has announced the launch of a new Gospel Choir open to anyone aged 14 and upwards who enjoys singing.
 
According to Patricia Keir, Head of Junior Music and Access Studies at the College:

'We want to target the wider community from outside the College, giving a new group of amateur singers a chance to develop successful choral singing skills within a comfortable, fun environment while aiming for the best standards we can. This is a unique chance to take part in a gospel choir led by Alex Douglas, one of the first post-graduate choral conducting students to study at the College.'
 
An experienced conductor, Alex has worked with all age groups and all kinds of music. He is passionate about Gospel music and is also a graduate in jazz piano and a specialist in world music. He has composed, written and arranged music for projects ranging from Welsh National Opera to music for film and radio, and will be arranging a lot of the music for the choir, taken from African-American Gospel music. Alex also plays the saxophone, working with the leading music and dance company JazzXchange.

The Choir starts on 24 February at 6.30 – 8.00 pm at the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama. There are no Simon Cowell-like auditions and no musical experience is needed. Just come along and enjoy being part of this unique singing community. The fee will be £23.50 for 5 weeks.

To download a booking form, click here. For further information, telephone +44 (0)29 2039 1391 or e-mail events@rwcmd.ac.uk.

choirzone partner Peters Edition is to sponsor a jazz vocal workshop at Zone's National Festival of Music Education, musiclearninglive!2010, which takes place from from 25-26 February 2010 at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester.

 
Django Bates and Josefine Lindstrand

The workshop, which will be run by composer and keyboard player Django Bates and vocalist Josefine Lindstrand, presents The Interval Song, Django's jazz composition for voice and piano which incorporates every interval from minor 2nd to major 7th in a challenging and enjoyable vocal workout.

The Interval Song

The Interval Song is published by Peters Edition. To register for musiclearninglive!2010, click here.

International publishers of all things musical, Peters Edition has joined choirzone  as a major sponsor.

Peters Edition publishes sheet and online music in all genres and has a designated Music for Choirs section dedicated to all things choral including:

• Contemporary Choral
• Close Harmony
• Specialist Repertoire
• Coaching CDs for Choirs
• Choral Vivace (for youth and adult choirs)

Peters Edition sends out regular e-newsletters to choral directors with details of new issues and special offers as well as free perusal scores for any of the titles featured in their Music for Choirs web pages.

West Dean College in Sussex has announced an exciting programme of singing courses as part of its 2010 programme of music and music appreciation courses.

With ‘big name’ tutors including Roy Wales, Susan Legg and Evelyn Tubb, the courses cover a range of music styles and disciplines and provide opportunities for people of all abilities to spend a day, a weekend or a few days away from the hustle and bustle of their daily lives in the magical atmosphere of this beautiful house. Many of the courses take place in West Dean's magnificent State Rooms filled with period features and wonderful objects.

Two courses of particular interest to choral singers are:

100 Years of English Choral Music - 25-27 June 2010

Roy Wales

• Intermediate/Advanced
• Rehearse and explore a wide variety of well-loved music by 20th and 21st century composers on this workshop for singers with choral experience and some sight-reading ability
• Tutors - Roy Wales with Marcus Martin. Roy Wales is an experienced choral director and orchestral conductor. Founder of the British Choral Institute, he has conducted many workshops and choral study courses 
  

A Joyous Tradition: Singing Folk Songs in Harmony - 25 September 2010

Sarah Morgan

• Beginners
• Learn the skills of singing unaccompanied in several voice parts and develop your musical abilities
• Tutor - Sarah Morgan co-leads Winchester Community Choir as well as running workshops for a variety of organisations. She has published two books of songs arranged for community choirs

Details of all 2010 music courses may be downloaded here.

The UK’s biggest amateur choral competition, Choir of the Year 2010, in association with BBC Radio 3, is now open for entries.

Choir of the Year is free to enter and brings together singing groups of all ages to battle it out for a place in the Grand Final at London’s Royal Festival Hall in November 2010, broadcast on BBC Radio 3 and BBC FOUR.

Royal Festival Hall

Every two years, thousands of singers come together at venues across the UK to perform music in a vast array of styles - from medieval carols to musical theatre, from traditional Afro-Cuban to pop. The best groups in each category - Children, Youth, Adult and Open – go on to compete in the finals and only one will be crowned Choir of the Year 2010!

2008 winners, Scunthorpe Cooperative Junior Choir

Online entry forms are available here and must be completed by 11 December 2009. The preliminary round – the Area Selection Stage – takes place at venues across the UK in Spring 2010.

                                                                                                                     
A massed choir of 800 people gathered on London's South Bank on Sunday 13 September 2009 to Sing for Water. Choirs from all over the country came together to perform a special repertoire of songs to help some of the world’s poorest people gain access to clean, safe water.

Led by Zone musiclearninglive session leader, Michael Harper (pictured below) and vocal specialist, Roxane Smith, the choir performed songs drawn from a wide range of musical traditions as part of the annual Thames Festival. At the same time, choir members were able to raise money for WaterAid projects in Ghana and Malawi. 

Michael Harper and another Sing for Water choir leader

Choirs taking part included:

• The Great Gustos
• The Quangle Wangle Choir
• Whitstable Whistlefish
• Allunde
• Song Works
• Women of Note
• Walcot State Choir
  
• Good Vibrations
• Unity Singers
• Red Leicester Choir
• EcCo
• Streatham Voices
• Bangor Community Choir
• Gasworks Choir
  

Debs Wright from Walcot State Choir commented: "It was really uplifting to be singing with so many other people from around the country for such a great cause."

Sing for Water was initiated in 2002 by composer, singer and musical director, Helen Chadwick, to provide a high-quality concert event as part of the Thames Festival programme while raising money and awareness for WaterAid. Sing for Water events have so far raised over £300,000 for WaterAid projects in India, Burkina Faso, Ghana and Malawi, bringing clean water, sanitation and hygiene education to thousands of people.

London-based choir, Finchley Children's Music Group has missed out on a contract worth £50,000 following the sudden death of Michael Jackson.

The choir was to have appeared in Jackson’s 50 arena concerts at the O2 with the £1000 per night fee going, according to FCMG Chairman Simon Weir, "towards the costs of staging 'The Jailer's Tale', the opera we've commissioned [...] as the final act in our recent 50th birthday celebrations."

Michael Jackson

Several children's choirs had originally been invited to put themselves forward for consideration to appear with Michael Jackson. FCMG won the vote of agency Mark Summers Casting UK, working in conjunction with director and choreographer Kenny Ortega, the Los Angeles-based mastermind of the O2 events.

"Amazing kids... amazing choir" is how Mark Summers described his experience of hearing the FCMG in action. "I loved the experience of walking into a room full of kids like that. Their energy is superb." 

Finchley Children's Music Group

The choir are no strangers to high-powered performances. In 2007, they sang with Madonna at Wembley Stadium as part of her Live Earth tour. Organised by ex-US Vice President Al Gore, the concert was beamed around the world to 120 countries and an estimated audience of more than two billion viewers.

FCMG member Sophie Crawford shares the mike with Madonna

Boys from Guildford Cathedral Choir had the time of their lives last week when they performed in the new St. Trinian's film: "The Legend of Fritton's Gold". Filming took place on 22 and 23 July at Charterhouse School in Godalming, Surrey, with the boys recording a different scene on each day.

Chorister, Edward Cunningham, sent the following report:
   
When we arrived at Charterhouse, we had to check in with the organiser. Scattered around us were props, cameras, equipment, trailers, make-up artists, actors, actresses, cars and most importantly, the food trailer. This was where we went for our breakfast of bacon, toast, eggs etc which we all ate eagerly.

After this, we had to visit the make-up artists who were obviously trying to make us look posh, some more embarrassingly than others. Then, on this first day, we had to dress in our costumes (simply our normal cassocks and surplices) before filming a scene where we were the background action to a group of St Trinian’s girls who were talking disappointedly about there being no ‘fit’ boys around.

On the second day, we filmed our main scene, where we would be the focus of the action and because of this we had to be on set by 7.30am. We were all slightly apprehensive because of what we had to do: singing Franck’s Panis Angelicus ‘straight’ and then, after much rehearsing, the same piece but at double speed with beatbox accompaniment, egged on by the St Trinian’s girls. After many rehearsals and takes, we finished this exhausting session after a fabulous lunch.

Sarah Harding & David Tennant

Regrettably, we didn’t meet Colin Firth, Rupert Everett or David Tennant, all of whom are starring in the film, but we were in a scene with Sarah Harding from Girls Aloud (by the way, she plays Roxy in the film) and we did get paid! To see quite how outrageous the beatbox is, how much fun we had, and who were the craziest of us, go and see the film at your local cinema from 18th December 2009.

Guildford Cathedral Choir has experienced many exciting events during 2009 including a choir tour to the USA, Chorister Outreach with Sing Up and a CD recording. They will also be singing Choral Evensong live on BBC Radio 3 in November.