The big Sing!

We held our annual Come and Sing at the weekend, and it was really great fun, with singers from all over Northern Ireland joining in.

The altos and some basses.. 

Stephen Doughty, our choir master, led the day. We whizzed through the whole of Brahms German Requiem in a couple of hours, which was an interesting challenge... After tackling a particulalry 'busy' passage, which Stephen described as 'Battling the fugues',  the singer next to me asked with some alarm, 'will we run through that again later..?' and I reassured her, 'Oh I really don't think so, we'll just GO FOR IT in the performance..'. In the first half an hour we'd learnt a few Doughty-House-Rules, largely to do with keeping an eye on him. (whatever next..). Not difficult considering his eye catching attire, ahem...

My camera had real trouble deciding where to focus on this.. This shirt doubles up as a useful eye test. If you look hard enough you'll be able to see a fluffy animal.. 

 Stephen communicated with us, unusually, using most of the semaphore flags.. This one, below, is the letter P, which he used regularly, mostly when we were Perfect, obviously.

Our Orchestra was the fantastic duo of Gail and Stuart, who played four handedly and did the most wonderful (and fast-moving) job. They were a couple of peas in a pod and a pleasure to watch.

sitting still before we get started... 

...and in fast motion in the fugue..

Best quotes of the day from Stephen - GOOD LUCK, SEE YOU AFTER THE NEXT PAGE... IF IN DOUBT, KEEP GOING...

(note: these phrases are NEVER uttered during our usual Philharmonic rehearsals.)

Two lovely lady tenors who join us regularly for the Come and Sing

Cecilia doing a wonderful job giving out the music

If you haven't attended one of these 'turn up and join in' days, I really recommend that you come to the next one. It is fun and the performances are always surprisingly enjoyable.

We have a bright new friendly face at the helm, with our new Chairperson being Carol Abel, from the Alto section.