Members of Surrey Harmony recently spent the weekend learning more about their craft with Sweet Adelines from across Region 31 at the ‘Feel The Earth Move’ education event in Croydon’s Fairfield Halls.
Choruses from England, Scotland and the Netherlands came together for seminars led by 2007 International Small Chorus Champions Alba Show Chorus and their Director Åse Hagerman. Classes included finding your inner drum, barbershop for beginners and using tags to develop vocal skills – so there was something for everyone. There was also an opportunity to perform in the Symposium Chorus in the evening show along with Region 31 Silver medallists Storm as well as Alba themselves.
The weekend was rounded off by a Mass Sing led by our very own Master Director Jenny Lawson. Over 300 women enjoyed singing regional songs including ‘Quartet of Nations’ and ‘Fame’. We made a fabulous sound and of course, being barbershop there was even some choreography.
We are very proud of our Assistant Director and Education Coordinator on the RMT Valerie Taylor who came up with the initial idea for the weekend, as well as our Baritone Emma Riley for coordinating the event so effectively and calmly. It really was a roaring success so a big well done and thank you to Valerie and Emma!
Sunday 28th of September saw Surrey Harmony’s numbers swell as over 30 singers joined us for our Fame recruitment day!
And wow what a day it was! We started early with warm ups of the vocal and physical variety, and quickly moved on to placing our guests into their parts, Tenor, Lead, Bari and Bass. Parts assigned, it was onto learning the chorus to “Fame”, our chosen song for the day. With regular pit stops for coffee and biscuits, it wasn’t long before we’d mastered the verses, tag and a few “do do dooh’s” as well. The sound was amazing, everyone picked up the song really quickly and we were ahead of schedule going into our final session “Putting on the Glitz”. It was time for choreo! Jackie had found some moves to really capture those childhood memories jumping off the sofa singing “FAME!”. (Or was that just me then? – Ed).
At 5.30, friends and family arrived for our final performance. So glad rags at the ready, our guests dazzled their way through, not one but 2 renditions of “Fame”, as well as a harmony round we had learned early in the day.
Well done everyone for all your hard work and effort at Fame! We hope to see plenty of our Fame day guests back at Wednesday night rehearsals in the coming weeks.
If you missed Fame, it’s not too late to join Surrey Harmony, we always welcome new and prospective members along at our rehearsals…. so why not pop in and you too could be jumping from the sofa with your hands in the air, singing “Fame… I wanna live forever”!