I’ve blogged before about my experience in the Calverley Community Choir and we just completed what they call ‘The Big Gig” which is held once a year. This was at Victoria Hall Saltaire in Yorkshire.
Calverly Community Choir
The Set for the night
We had two sets for the night, covering a wide range of material.
Help
From Now On – Greatest Showman
Somebody to Love
Sweet Dreams – Eurythmics
Lady Gaga/Bradley Cooper – Shallow
Some Nights
Bad Habits
Edge of Seventeen
Walk me home
Shut Up and Dance – Walk The Moon
Dancing on my own
Seasons of Love
Andra Day – Rise Up
Skyfall
Castles
This is not the easiest set of songs as with the choir there are some intricate arrangements. That’s why the choir leader Jenny Leigh (I think of her as “fearless leader”) is central to all that happens. She is essentially “the hub of the wheel” and keeps everything on track.
Jenny Leigh
Focus is everything, “the hub of the wheel”
This is the first time I’ve been in a choir at a large event. We’d done some warm up slots, but this was on a totally different scale. Many in the choir were new to singing in such a public situation and the group gave a quite exceptional performance.
Calverly community choir
Our “fearless leader” seriously knocked it out of the park with directing the choir. From the very first track, she made sure everyone was engaged and crucially having a great time. Jenny also had a flip chart which only we could see with hilarious messages to keep the group engaged.
However, the key in maintaining direction was a brilliant series of directions to the full ensemble that were at times totally hilarious and always perfect in bringing out the very best performance from the group. This is where years of experience really count and everyone felt totally at ease and this was reflected in the end result.
The audience loved the evening and special thanks to all who made this possible on the night. Its a ton of work and Sarah and Rachel are invaluable in supporting Jenny. The soloists on the night, Fiona, Nichola, Shelly and others did a great job along with “the bass boys” who as ever brought their ‘A game” Personally it was a total blast and we had this evening professionally recorded on video, so some promo material will appear in due course…