As I write this, it’s early February. After five choir rehearsal sessions, last year’s hugely successful Christmas concert seems like a distant memory. We’ve had five new members join The Musicality Singers — a mix of tenors, altos and sopranos — and very welcome they are. We’re still going from strength to strength. I’ll put in my usual plea for more basses, though — so, if there’s anyone out there who thinks they might be a bass: you’d be very welcome, too.
So far, we’ve been finessing a couple of pieces from last year and learning two new pieces. These new arrangements are quite different from each other. (I guess that’s not so surprising, given that we’re not a choir that does the same old, same old, all the time.) One piece is the 1980s Flying Pickets hit ‘Only You’. It was one of my favourite songs in the 80s. My wife and I even went to see the group perform live. Working on it now is proving a bit of a challenge for me, but I can tell that it will sound brilliant. The other piece is an old folk song, ‘The Miller of Dee’. I confess that I’m not really a folk fan, but I’m enjoying this more than I expected to. There is more new material in the pipeline, of course, as we bid to overhaul, rebuild and expand our repertoire. I have no idea what’s in store, but I can guarantee there will be lots of variety.
We’ve also been planning events for the rest of the year. There are a number of performances either agreed or in the pipeline. This year, though, our first major concert will be in early July at Worksop Town Hall and later in the year we’ll be performing in Dinnington again. Looking forward to both of those. I’ll give you more details as the year progresses.
In the meantime, if you feel like joining us to give singing in a choir a try, rehearsals currently take place at the Crown Place Community Centre, just off Sandy Lane, Worksop. Our practices begin at 10.30am on Thursday mornings, though people begin arriving about 10.00am. If you want to know more, call Chris Hunt, our chairwoman, on 01909 569045 or call me on 07964 409251.
Malcolm Fritchley