Day 94 - Strawberry Fair

We’ve been putting on a fundraising concert at church today in aid of two fabulous charities – Friends of PICU and Christian Aid.  The first half of the concert was set in a village with all the performers on stage as if they were sitting around on the village green and then taking it in turns to perform folk songs, or read poems, ending with singing round the piano at the village pub. The second half was a more traditional concert style featuring British musical theatre songs from before 1945.  I sang a couple of Ivor Novello songs which I loved.

Day 69 - Concert rehearsals

We are doing another concert at church on 17th May which is a joint fundraiser for Friendsof PICU and Christian Aid – a group of performers from our church is doing the first half of the concert and then my group Pyramix is doing the second half.  The concert is titled ‘Strawberry Fair’ and will feature pre-1945 English folk songs and musical theatre songs.  I’m involved in both halves although so far rehearsals have been focusing on the second half of the concert where I’ll be singing a couple of my favourite Ivor Novello songs – really enjoying it so far.

Sophie's stage and TV debut

Sophie made her stage debut in today’s concert being rocked by Mummy for her solo ‘Hush You, My Baby’ (and also accompanied Mummy on stage for the group numbers too!) She was underwhelmed by her first stage appearance – in fact she slept through the entire concert! Then in the evening, she made her TV debut too as she appeared on ‘Strictly Come Dancing’ being cuddled by the celebrity dancer Sophie Ellis-Bextor at the Downing Steet children’s Christmas party (and even got a mention too!). We were inundated with text messages from excited friends and family members who had spotted her.

Children and concert rehearsals

Final concert rehearsal this evening before the big day. Had to take both girls out to rehearsal with me as all my possible babysitters are all taking part and also needed to be there. Despite it being a late night for her, Jessica was quite happy playing with toys and covering the piano in stickers and Sophie was happy as long as she was being fed (am getting used to rehearsing whilst feeding but hope I won't be trying to perform and feed on Saturday!) It's all coming together now - hopefully all will go well with the performance on Saturday.

Coughs, colds and concerts

There's just a week to go until our Christmas concert. I haven't managed to do very much rehearsing over the last week thanks to a sore throat and a cough which have left me with very little in the way of a singing voice. Things seem rove gradually improving although the cough is still being quite persistent. I really hope it disappears by next week otherwise things could be interesting! I'm looking forward to being on stage with Sophie for my solo and it would be quite disappointing if I wasn't able to sing after all. Keeping my fingers crossed!

Christmas concert concerns

Rehearsals are now underway for our Christmas concert at church. Despite trying to keep my involvement to a minimum (my original plan was just to do the carols and do a solo) I seem to be in quite a few numbers, several of which I don't really know so I have some learning to do! Michael is also taking part so trying to make time to get to rehearsal with a new baby and a toddler is fun! Hopefully it will go well and we will raise a good amount to support the intensive care unit where Jessica was treated.

Concert planning

I’m involved in organising a Christmas concert at church which will be fundraising for Friends of PICU, a charity which helps support children in intensive care at Southampton General Hospital and their families. Thankfully my mother-in-law is also involved in organising this so I can take a bit more of a back seat once Pod arrives but am still planning on taking part in the concert (not entirely sure that this is really very sensible of me given that I will have a very small baby and a toddler to look after!) Oh well, at least it keeps me busy!

Here Comes Summer concert

Our summer concert at church seemed to go quite well in the end although it was a shame that the audience was so small – the lovely sunny weather obviously worked against us in some ways! It was all a bit of a mad rush this morning with rehearsing through all the numbers and trying to get all the lighting and sound kit ready and everyone fitted with mics but we just about managed to be ready on time and everyone did very well. Jessica enjoyed her second stage appearance in the final number ‘The Sun Has Got His Hat On’

Public property

When you’re pregnant, it seems you become public property – complete strangers feel they can touch your bump and comment on its size. My song in tomorrow’s concert is all about this – it’s called ‘The Ladies Singing Their Song’ from the musical ‘Baby’. With this pregnancy, I have been told several times that I look big. It’s a good job I used to be a midwife otherwise I might be panicking that I really am too big. Thankfully I know I’m not an unusual size for this stage – it’s just that my abdominal muscles aren’t as taut as they once were.

Accidental damage

Last night’s concert rehearsal went well – just one rehearsal left on the morning of the concert and then we will be performing for real! Had a funny moment during rehearsal when I was helping two of the men practice their duet in one of the side rooms at church. I was playing the piano for them and as I did a glissando across the keyboard, two of the black keys went flying across the piano! I didn’t think I’d been playing particularly forcefully although it is an old piano in need of a little TLC. Thankfully the damage is repairable.

Summer concert rehearsal

Last rehearsal at my house tonight before we start rehearsing at church and with less than two weeks to go until the concert, it is starting to feel a bit more nerve-wracking. It seems to be coming together though – we just need everyone to be more confident with the words on solos and duets now so that they can start losing their sheet music security blankets. Although I have been happy with my decision to give up am-dram, I am enjoying the opportunity to perform again and thankfully Jessica sleeps through all the noise of people rehearsing which helps too!

Church concert

Tonight’s church concert got a very mixed reception. The first half featured a jazz singer and a local student choir, both of which seemed to be quite popular with the audience but the second half, which was best described as “vocally experimental” was perhaps a little too experimental for the type of audience which we usually have. It didn’t help that the concert went on much later than usual and by midway through the second half, half the audience had already left leaving me to wonder if we would still have any audience remaining by the end (fortunately we did!)

Mid-week concert at church

We host a regular series of concerts at church featuring local musicians. These normally take place every other month on a Saturday night. However, last year we had a concert featuring young musicians from the local area which was on a Thursday night (two days before my wedding and despite intending to be there, somehow I just couldn’t seem to find the time!). This year we’ve repeated the Thursday night July concert with the young musicians which has turned out to be a great concert and we managed to get quite a good-sized audience as well – not bad for mid-week.

Wind quintet concert

Tonight’s concert at church had a significantly smaller audience than we usually get at concerts – something to do with a football match that happened to be on at the same time, apparently. We had a wind quintet (plus pianist) playing this evening – a mixture of music which included pieces by Mozart and Elgar plus selections from “The Mikado” and “Carmen”. It was a really good concert and in some ways having a smaller audience was good as we were also low on numbers with helpers and so those of us who were helping were kept very busy as a result!

Concerts and cameras

Michael and I have been helping out again with another concert at church – this time featuring a swing band from a local school who were very good. Michael has been playing with the lighting this time – trying to make a feature of the pyramid roof and make the lighting more interesting, whereas I was enjoying getting to grips with my new camera – having finally made the jump from compact to D-SLR and trying to work out what all the settings do! I think I got a few decent photos – they’re certainly a lot better than the ones from previous concerts.

Phoenix Jazz Band

I’ve been helping out again with another concert at church. Tonight’s concert featured Phoenix Jazz Band, playing lots of standards, such as “Georgia on my Mind” and “Pennies From Heaven”. It seems to have gone down very well – the audience certainly looked like they were enjoying it which is always good. I found it a little more difficult – I love the type of music they were playing but it was music that I associate very strongly with memories of my dad and particularly those of him playing the piano. They’re good memories but they make me miss him even more.

Stretching the limits of artistic licence

I’ve been helping out at a concert at church this evening, featuring a local adult choir, primary school choir and a fantastic trombone player from the RAF. The choirs weren’t too bad (the adult choir would have been very good had it not been for one particularly dominant singer) although there were a couple of interesting duets. One in particular made me chuckle inwardly – a rather mature couple singing “You Are Love” from Showboat – hearing a portly middle-aged balding man described in song as “You are spring, bud of romance unfurled” was a bit optimistic even allowing for artistic licence!

All that jazz

Yesterday’s concert at church featured a jazz quartet and a couple of jazz singers performing standards such as I Get A Kick Out Of You, Girl From Ipanema, A Foggy Day and Let’s Call The Whole Thing Off. It was a good concert, and the performers were all really friendly, which is a bonus (it can be quite stressful setting up for a concert when the performers act like prima donnas!) We usually have concerts at church every other month, but there are so many people interested in performing lately that the last few have been monthly which is great.

Monckton and friends

Tonight’s concert at church was entitled “Monckton and Friends” and featured a trio of singers from the Royal Opera chorus. The Monckton referred to in the title is Lionel Monckton who was a composer of musical comedies in the early 1900s (his most well-known show being “The Arcadians”). There were also several numbers written by other composers of musical comedies around the same period. It was one of the best concerts at church so far – the singing was absolutely superb and fortunately this time I did manage to sit down and actually listen to the music which is always good!

Hornucopia

I’ve been spending tonight at a concert at church. I’m involved in organising the publicity for these concerts which happen usually every two months, giving (mostly) local musicians a chance to perform. Tonight’s concert featured brass players from the RAF who performed a variety of numbers ranging from classical music, such as the finale to Beethoven’s Symphony No. 1 to more popular pieces, such as Bohemian Rhapsody and the theme from Star Wars. It was a really good concert, although I spent most of the evening running around organising things rather than sitting down and listening to the music properly.