New Year New Start

The new year is a good time to review what we want to achieve for the coming year and so part of our practice session each week is being set aside to discuss ideas and make future plans.  Hopefully we can reach a consensus of opinion in the next few weeks and reach agreements that will carry us through the year thus reducing the need for too much discussion in our future practice sessions.  Well that's the aim anyway, as what we really want to do is sing and it eats into our singing time if we spend too much time chatting. 

Janina will be taking over as our accompanist soon to and in the meantime we have Rowena helping us out. We are free of any outside commitments until April when we enter the music festival again.  Two songs we have chosen for one class need just a few tweaks here and there and we are good to go, the other two have yet to be decided from our repertoire. 

There may be an exciting opportunity coming up but more of that later........

Happy New Year

Wow just checked the blog after a long gap and realised my last post was New Year 2015!  How time flies.  We had a busy December as usual with our regulars requesting that we perform at their Christmas functions and we even have two performances coming up in January which is quite unusual for us.  We are singing for the Ackworth 74 Club at the Kings Croft Hotel and they have requested a spot of audience participation which is new for our group.  However we will rise to the challenge and enjoy the experience.  Another spot we are doing is for a local care home who we lost touch with until they found us again and we enjoy singing in that venue.  We will be singing unaccompanied at this one (which is probably good as the space is limited, so no need to cram the keyboard in)  and will have to choose our repertoire accordingly.  However we do have some new rounds and of course some old favourites to sing too. It's good to be blogging again and happy new year to everyone out there.

Happy New Year

It is a little late to be wishing everyone a Happy New Year but as it is the first blog for the 2015 I hope you will humour me and accept the felicitation.

We have a busy start to the year with our sing outs starting 10th February for the Arthritis Care group meeting followed by a coffee morning to open the new meeting room on the 5th March then the following day we are competing at the Pontefract Music Festival. Then on April 11th we are delighted to have been invited to sing in Castleford Male Voice Choir's concert.

So we had better get exercising our vocal chords and learning those songs so we can sing off the books.  

If anyone would like to join our choir we are mainly a singing for pleasure group who sing a range of songs mostly popular in two part harmony.  We are a mixed choir who currently only have one male voice and he would love to have some male company.  So why not come along and join in we are a friendly bunch.

Summer Break

Liquorice Singers have begun an enforced early summer break. Work is being carried out at the meeting room where we rehearse and picking our way through builders paraphernalia was proving tricky so we decided to call it a day until they complete the works. An extension is being erected which will house a new office for the Almshouse Trust and additional storage space including a chair store which with luck will give us a little more space. 

We aim to restart singing on 20th August all being well.  
  
New singers are always welcome and remember there are no auditions to worry about.  Hope to see some new faces on 20th August.  Enjoy your summer and keeeeep singing.

Events

I cannot believe it is mid July and my last blog was way back in March.  It seems a little late to be giving feedback regarding the music festival after all this time but we had some lovely comments from the adjudicator who persuaded us to enter a competitive class next time.  We have started our rehearsals for this already!  

We also have a few event dates listed below.  The Thorneycroft Centre have been asking us for a while to come along and perform at one of their functions and it has proved difficult to find a time when we have a full compliment of singers (they will keep going off on holiday).  The summer is now upon us and we are having a break for August so we have arranged a date for September and fingers crossed this will go ahead as planned.

•    6th September 2014    Concert (tbc)
•    18th September 2014  Thorneycroft Centre
•    10th February 2015     Arthritis Care
•    13th March 2015          Pontefract Music Festival

We will also be singing a selection of WW1 songs as part of the WW1 commemoration year during October and November in the Market Square, Pontefract.  So Pack up your Troubles and if you are still A Long Way from Tipperary you might want to come along and join in with Oh it's a Lovely War and if not I'll wish you Goodbyee.

Pontefract Music Festival

It's that time of year again and decision time - do we compete or enter for fun?  The first time we entered Pontefract Music Festival we entered the Sing for Fun category, then last year we had to drop out because we had no MD or accompanist.  This year with so many excellent choirs competing we decided to once again opt for the fun category; we are after all a singing for pleasure group and not particularly competitive.  We are looking forward to taking part and hearing the adjudicators comments.  We love our Wednesday choir sessions but it is always good to have an audience and we have been practicing our two numbers so we can sing - wait for it - OFF THE BOOKS!  Never did I think I would utter those words, whenever I have broached the subject in the past the look of horror and the shouts of protest meant that I had more or less given up on the idea.  So I am not sure how we find ourselves singing without looking at the music but I have to say I am made up and a very proud woman.   It makes such a difference to the sound and lovely to see peoples faces rather than looking at the tops of heads.

This will be my first festival as choir conductor so it is a bit nerve wracking for me, I will just have to pretend it is a normal rehearsal night and hope for the best.  I will however have the support of 12 lovely singers all looking and smiling and singing their best.  Bring it on!!!!

Musical Directors x 4

We have been very fortunate in our relatively short existence to have had some very talented folk helping us out along the way.  Becki Woolfe, a teacher, started the choir in 2010 when her school advertised for singers to start a community choir and she nurtured us in the early days.  When she had to leave we had the very talented Andrew Booth of fono-productions with us for a year and he made a valiant effort to knock us into shape musically.  He helped us to improve our singing and taught us some lovely songs.  David Gilson helps us out occasionally and he has done a couple of arrangements for us.  When we found ourselves without a leader we asked the local newspaper to do an article and we were fortunate to find Elaine from this publicity. See the article (and hear us sing) here dated Nov 2013 only problem was they printed an incorrect email address but fortunately new singers and an MD still found us. 

We are very grateful to everyone who have given their time and expertise and kept us singing.  The choir would not have progressed and grown in the way it has without your input.