“London sings out!” according to Various Voices so Surrey Harmony sang out!
On a beautiful May morning, Surrey Harmony ventured to the Royal Festival Hall on the Southbank to take part in a magnificent festival dedicated to singing – thousands of singers from across the UK, Europe and further afield converged for an uplifting and inspiring 4-day festival of song.
Surrey Harmony were lucky enough that this year, London was chosen as the venue and that we were invited to be a part of this exciting festival!
On a beautiful May morning, Surrey Harmony ventured to the Royal Festival Hall on the Southbank
We kicked off a Choir3! show featuring Podium Paris and Loud & Proud, and being able to perform on such a prestigious stage was a fantastic experience for all of us! It was very evident that our audience had fun too!
Various Voices is a pan-European gay choral festival that takes place every four years with cities competing for the honour of hosting the event. Various Voices London 2009 is the 12th Festival, originally known as The European Festival of Song.
With our hearts still ringing from the show at the Royal Festival Hall, Surrey Harmony made the trek up to Newcastle to perform at The Sage, One of the UK’s most prestigious Festival Hall’s. It was hard to believe we would be able to top the Harmony High of the previous week’s performance, but we managed it with not one but 2 appearances on the main stage.
Surrey Harmony kicked off the annual Sweet Adeline’s Region 31 Competition, which would see choruses from Scotland, England, Wales and the Netherlands competing for Gold!
As Surrey Harmony are already heading to the Sweet Adeline’s Finals in Nashville later this year, we performed for evaluation only, but this did not stop the nerves, nor the excitement to see the Forth Valley Chorus, take the Gold and win their place at International next year.
Once the competition was over, Surrey Harmony took to the Stage for a second time in the evening showcase. With the chorus split into 4 separate costumes, the audience was filled with anticipation as to what lay ahead. The MC was even heard to remark that “Surrey Harmony always come up with something a bit different”.
With songs from the age of the suffragette to Dolly Parton, Surrey Harmony took the audience on a journey of the lives of women through the last 100 years.
Surrey Harmony are already heading to the Sweet Adeline’s Finals in Nashville later this year
A Quartet of Quartets
But our convention didn’t end there, as Surrey Harmony fielded not 1 but 4 Quartets in the Quartet competition. We are so proud of our girls in Dynamix, Encore!, Hunky Dory and Tempo, many of whom had never competed in the Quartet competition before!
They all did fantastically well and all finished in the top half of the grid. You can find out more about them on our quartets page… These girls love to sing, whatever the occasion so why not book a quartet for your next do!
