A Busy Weekend - Sunday

Saturday's description was posted just before this, so read that one first. this is about Sunday which was really important because it was also the proper start of the new season. In a way, the seasons are starting to bleed into one another, partly because we have gigs throughout the breaks. Still, not having rehearsals is a welcome change to the weekends, even if after a while I start to itch to get back into the swing of things.Liang, our new members' rep., has been a super busy-bee in the break. Who knows whether it is because of the promotion of choral singing by Sing London, or shows like Last Choir Standing or The Choir on TV, but there has been huge interest in joining this year. On Sunday we had nine new attendees. They all seem really friendly and according to Mladen and Michael De had good voices. It can be hard for new members to feel at home, but I think that the Pinkies generally do a good job of welcoming them. On my part I think I have to rein the friendliness in just a tad to avoid sounding a bit too leery.

This season we are singing Christmas songs which makes a significant departure for us from the usual. I know many of the pieces already, at least by ear, but singing them is quite a different story. We began with Britten's Ceremony of Carols, and I can recall when we last did this two years ago how long it took to learn the timing and notes of This Little Babe. This time everything seemed to fall into place beautifully. I'm not sure whether this causes consternation to the new members who may feel that this is how the choir always sings.

Thankfully we put that impression right by our total massacre of Tomorrow Shall Be My Dancing Day. There was no hope in hell of us getting this right first time, especially at the pace at which it has been written, and for once the tenor line is not particularly melodic. I'd not heard the carol before, which helps in a way because I don't have a tune to forget.

Mark, our new chair, is currently away on holiday, so Ben P, the new U.K. concerts co-ordinator, gave us a little talk in the break, as did Simon our new treasurer. The atmosphere of the choir is changing because of the change in the executive committee, and I can see many Pinkies wanting to participate in how it is run. This can only be good for the choir. We're still looking for a secretary, which should hopefully be filled soon.After that it was off to the pub. As usual, we had the upstairs area to ourselves and there was a great buzz. There were many members of the choir I hadn't seen in the last two months, so there was loads of catching up to do. I also had a chance to chat with Karen, a new alto this season who is also going to be in charge of publicity for the Pinkies. I can only admire someone who we unfortunately had to space for last season, yet who stuck around till there was. Some of the newbies stayed right to the end, which is either a sign that they like being in our group, or that they're alcoholic, or both! There are allegedly another ten newbies coming next week, and the week after that. Good luck to them all!