Will Hay

Tag: choral

  • Conducting the Caldy Valley Voices

    From September 2014, I took over the direction of the Aldford Singers, a community choir founded only 12 months previously. We prepared and performed a World War 1 celebration concert in October 2014 in collaboration with my previous choir, the NE Singers to a packed Village Hall in Aldford.

    The combined Aldford Singers and NE Singers in action in November 2014

    Caldy Valley Voices LogoIn January 2015, the choir’s rehearsal venue moved to Caldy Valley Church in Chester. Since then I have re-branded the choir to reflect both the geographic location and the style of singing group which we are. I mostly arrange the music we sing myself to suit the tastes and abilities of the singers. Starting from a unison, I add subtle harmony in places to colour the melodies but just enough so that the parts are fun to sing but still manageable to learn. The singers are also supported by mp3 recordings they can download from the website to do ‘note-learning homework’.

    As part of the choir re-branding and ongoing choir promotion, I was recently interviewed on Flipside FM, talking about directing the choir.

    Will on Flipside FM

     

  • NESingers – A new direction

    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.

    photo by AboutMyAreaNeston

    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.

    WILL HAY