Various Voices: It's Starting!

It's really starting. Really, really starting! For those of us in the Pinkies who have been working on the Various Voices committee for the last four years it is with a combination of relief and trepidation that we see the fruits of our labour finally paying off.

We returned from Paris on a bit of a high, and this Sunday it was time to learn new music as well as rehearse our performance for Various Voices. It is going to be huge. Most of the pieces are in place, but there are still some people snatching the odd glance at the lyrics. Still, we are sounding better and better. We still have two more rehearsals to fully polish the pieces.

The rehearsals for the festival choir have also started, and we are performing Carmina Burana in the Royal Festival Hall. It is always interesting singing with another choir, and this time we are performing with Voicelab and the London Philharmonic choir. I thought our tenors were loud. Even the whispered start of Ecce Gratum sounded thunderous! Hard to imagine how loud it will be when the full complement of 300 singers gets onto stage!

Last night was also our only rehearsal of the Voices Of Our City joint song: All Over The World. It actually sounded really good, despite the misgivings we had. Part of this was due to the way in which the song is written, so you can't really sing it with just one choir.

I am getting really excited now - Various Voices is one of the biggest showcases of LGBT music anywhere, and the fact that we are doing this on a prestigious national and indeed global platform, on such a scale, is a tremendous achievement for us and our community!