Soprano Rachel (we’ll leave you to guess which one) opens the New Year with some fun facts about the choir.
We’re a diverse group with diverse experiences! Some of us have been around for ages in a ‘part of the furniture’ sort of a way, others are much newer. But did you know….
- Angela Kay MBE formed NCS (originally called the East of England Singers – long story!) in 1985. We celebrated our 40th anniversary season in 2024/25 with a varied series of concerts, commissioning a new work from Libby Croad, and the most uncomfortably hot concert we’ve ever sung – 33 degrees celsius! Yes, even at 40 and red as lobsters, we had a blast!
- We’re part of Music for Everyone (MfE), the umbrella charitable organisation that promotes – as it says on the tin – music for everyone. Whether you can read music or not, MfE probably has something for you.
- We sing all sorts! Most people hear ‘chamber choir’ and think of a particular style, but being a group of no more than 40 singers doesn’t constrain us. Our repertoire is HUGE, ranging from Hildegard von Bingen, a German abbess composing in the 12th century, right through to brand new music of the 21stcentury. We cover the lot! A jazz mass? Done that. Beatles songs as madrigals? Yes, that too. Bach? Obviously. Handel’s Messiah? Well, who wouldn’t?! Variety is the spice of life!
- As already mentioned, we’ve commissioned pieces to help up celebrate special anniversaries. For our 40th, Libby Croad set to music Walter de la Mare’s poem, ‘King David’ in a beautiful work, The Nightingale. For our 25th we commissioned Anthony le Fleming to set Siegfried Sassoon’s poem ‘Everyone Sang’. Two hugely differing styles, both fantastic to sing.
- And finally! For reasons that no one could possibly explain, approximately 12% of the choir rejoices in the name ‘Rachel’. It’s not compulsory to be called that, but it pretty much guarantees you’ll get someone’s attention if you shout, ‘RACHEL!’
Why have we used an image of Jelly Babies! Well, there are five of them, but they are a feature of NCS. Look out for them in a future Postcard!
Image:
Brücke-Osteuropa Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0
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