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VACANCIES
Usually after taking part in two rehearsals you and the musical director would then discuss the best way forward. So if you are interested in becoming a member of the choir, then please make contact straight away by either going to the “Contact Us” page or by phoning the Secretary on Telephone: +44 (0)20 8743 6897. The choir looks forward to hearing from you.  |
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St Peter’s Singers - by London Committee members Frances Maxwell & Phil Morris Last June, I had the pleasure of attending a St Peter’s Singers performance of the Haydn Stabat Mater. I remember being struck by the high quality of the singing, and mentioning it to my fellow committee members afterwards. This was clearly a group to watch. Phil Morris and I recently attended an open singing day held by the choir, partially funded through Making Music London’s training grants scheme, and designed to help the choir recruit new singers. Having spent six hours with the group, I now understand why they sing so beautifully. Duncan Aspden, the choir’s Musical Director, doesn’t let you get away with a thing! He has a thorough understanding of the voice and its workings, and really focuses on a great result. Unlike other open singing days I have attended, he did not settle for simply getting the notes right. We did a huge amount of work on breath control, listening carefully to each other for tuning and volume, and creating movement through phrasing. I felt like I really took something away from the day, much to the benefit of my own choir. There were about 40-50 people at the event, where about half of the singers were new – a great result. We worked through a variety of interesting pieces, and were accompanied beautifully by Andrew Wells – the choir’s accompanist for the last 20 years! Notable moments included the realisation that Arvo Pärt’s Solfeggio is actually a C major scale (once you’ve realised this, it becomes much easier to sing), and Knut Nystedt’s ‘Immortal Bach’ where the group splits into five choirs (ABCDE). Luckily we had enough of each part to be able to do this! In this piece, Group A holds each crotchet for four seconds, B for six seconds, C for eight and so forth. Unluckily, I was in E (typical), meaning I had to hold each crotchet for 12 seconds (gasp). Each group continues until everybody (eventually) gets to a resolution, every third bar or so. It was a bit of a counting frenzy but it was a unique experience and sound! We also sang some Palestrina, four of the Brahms Liebeslieder (which are still in my head today), Victoria’s Ave Maria (for two choirs) and Praetorius (arr. Jan Sandström) ‘Es ist ein ros entsprungen’. Don’t sing this if you don’t like humming – it’s definitely worth a listen though. When it was all over, everybody was exhausted, but we’d had a great time, and I think we all agreed it was worth missing the great weather for. I would not be surprised if everybody who came along that day signed up to join the choir afterwards. |
St Peter's Singers is always interested in hearing from singers who would like to join the choir. Initially please
contact the secretary to discuss joining in at one of the rehearsals and then meeting the musical director so that
we can learn more about each other.