NESingers – Musical Director’s Vision Statement, September 2012
This season we are heading in a new direction following on from the successful Singing Day in May. The new branding “NESingers” opens the door to anyone who wants to join us, whether to sing with our broader, more accessible musical repertoire or to listen at any of the events where we will be performing.
In the Christmas programme, we will maintain our seasonal tradition with carol concerts featuring favourite carols mixed with new compositions with personal and local connections. This year, we will be including a setting of Silent Night by Jamie. W. Hall who sang with us as a soloist in 2004 and is now a member of the BBC Singers. Jamie has recently had a carol published by Novello in their latest anthology of Christmas music.
Repertoire for our Spring concert will feature folksong settings by Rutter as well as an arrangement of “The Ashgrove” completed a few years ago by myself. This has already been performed as far afield as Perth, Western Australia. These items will by combined with lighter popular music and some audience participation.
Looking further ahead, we will continue our popular theme into the next season. Hopefully we can revisit some repertoire the singers have done in the past with renewed vision as well as learning new works to further expand upon our choral skills and musical enjoyment.