Time To Say Goodbye

Phew! What a season it has been. Our first concert at Cadogan Hall, an amazingly supportive audience and so much Pinkie love. Here's a video to tide you over till I catch my breath and write something more substantial.

Gleeful Show On Saturday!

Whatever you feel about Glee (and my own views are mixed - I find it a bit overwrought dramatically and overengineered vocally) those kids really are very talented. So it was with a tinge of sadness that I watched the last episode of the first season yesterday. The kids from New Directions made it to regionals, performed "Don't Stop Believing" and came in second behind the rather scary Vocal Adrenaline. On the way, they learned that it was not about the winning, it was about the getting there. Indeed.

With the Pink Singers' concert coming up this Saturday (tickets here), it naturally got me thinking about the kind of choir we are. When the Pink Singers first began, judging by the archived photos and videos, we were much more of a "cabaret" choir with shows which focused on soloists with choral backing and occasional choral numbers. There was simple choreography, and we'd put on gigs at the London Lighthouse to raise funds for the AIDS charity.

When Mladen came along, with his classical musical training, the choir changed again, this time focusing on the vocal quality. We became nore of a "proper" choir, with more challenging pieces. As we became more confident from that perspective, however, the chorerography started slipping in again, to the point where we now have a choreography team; the second half of the concert, which has traditionally been lighter entertainment, is almost entirely choreographed or staged.

We're not quite a show choir a la Glee yet though, nor do I think should we be. The main appeal to me of the Pinkies, and to the audience as well I believe, is that we are extremely diverse musically. There aren't that many concerts you can go to where the choir sings both Vivaldi's Gloria and ABBA's Does Your Mother Know. That is exactly what is promised on Saturday. So see you there!

In The Pink(ies) on Vimeo

Have you checked out the In The Pink(ies) vimeo channel yet? It is a companion to the YouTube channel, but when I have high definition videos, that's where they tend to go. I've created a little credits video for it which I'll be tacking on to the end of my videos in the future.

Pinkies' Summer Concert 2010 Trailer

I love this video - it encapsulates all the things I love about the Pink Singers: the singing, the family, the fun, the pride, the travelling, the meeting new people and making new friends. Come to our next concert and experience it for yourself - details on our website! Check out the ad in Gay Times below too...

A Virtual Choir

I have suggested the Pinkies sing Lux Aurumque after hearing the St. Michael's Singers perform this in Coventry Cathedral one Easter, but the Pinkies have never done it, in part because it doesn't quite fit in with our no-sheet-music style. Had I known about the choir project, however, I would have jumped at the opportunity to do it on-line, as these people have done. Eric Whitacre, in what is a stroke of genius, has arranged for a variety of individuals from around the world to record their lines and compiled them all into one super virtual choir. There was an incentive: these people were all auditioning for a choral scholarship via YouTube. The individual audition tracks are here. The (somewhat engineered) product is above. Wonderful!

The next project is another of his famous songs: Sleep. Stay tuned because the Pink Insider will definitely be taking part!

Mack Het Mes

Normally I amalgamate these videos with the main post about the concert, but the "Glee"-fulness of our performance of Mack The Knife in the Hague - even if we're not a show choir - deserves an entry all its own!

Doctor... Who?

Sorry, couldn't help feeling a little distracted after last night's Doctor Who. Yes, Matt Smith, as the 11th Doctor, and Karen Gillan, as the new sidekick Amelia "Amy" Pond, are actually really good, and the story was exciting, and the CGI could still be improved, and the smugness of the Doctor was annoying as always, and it looks like the new series will be full of mysteries to be leisurely unravelled (witness the prominent logo for MΨTH on the laptop)...

...but who could concentrate when the gorgeous Tom Hopper was on screen? Here's hoping the character Jeff has a "meatier" role in future episodes...

Edit: Added more gratuitous nudity... but for a good cause!

And the outcome of this photoshoot is here. I've not displayed it as it is marginally NSFW.

The Music Of The Chiffons

Here's something to look forward to in Summer season 2010. Of course the tenors and basses will be singing this. Methinks Jules will have costume ideas.

Being Part Of Something Special

"Being a part of something special makes you special, right?"

Just watched Glee last night on E4, and it was great. Reviewers have compared it to High School Musical on steroids, but that is selling it short as it is nowhere as near as saccharine.

First of all it reinforces my suspicion that if I had grown up in an American High School I would have been a major social reject. One good thing about being in Singapore is that, while sports achievements are laudable, so too are academic prowess and musical talent. This was just as well as I have never been particularly athletic, my closest brush with sports being on the cross-country team when there was absolutely no-one else who would do it. I was also the non-sports co-ordinator designate for my house. What that basically meant was that I organized the drama nights, the talent contests, the chess tournaments and the science and maths olympiads. A recipe for murder if ever there was one, certainly in the Glee universe.

Secondly it comes up with some amazing quotes like the one above. Said by Rachel to her teacher, it was conveyed with such a sense of hopeful self-deception it rang a chord in me. Do I disbelieve it? No, I think contributing to something special does make you special. Certainly the feeling I have from years of theatrical productions and concerts never seems to die with every new performance.

The Pink Singers' winter concert happens on Saturday and looking back at the season it is with great justification that I can say that what we've created is special, and that's just one reason why the Pinkies are special.



Random track from Glee included above because I love it.

Video Trailer For The Pinkies' Winter Concert 16 Jan 2010

Yes, the Pinkies are finally embracing the information age and we have a multimedia trailer for our concert for the first time ever! Thanks to Greg and Jules for the video and editing work, and to Ben P for pushing the idea through to fruition as well. Will this convince you to come for a great wintry evening out? I think so! Tickets are on sale now! Go to the Pink Singers website and get your advance discount.

Edit: Sorry about the video, but it appears there were a few errors. This will go up again when the corrections have been made, so stay tuned!

Edit: And it's up again! While we're pretty good musically, when it comes to other things you can tell we are an amateur group can't you? ;-)

Bridge Over Troubled Water

I can't believe that we are finally doing a gospel song in the choir, and a doozy we've picked too: an arrangement of Simon and Garfunkel's Bridge Over Troubled Water. Interestingly, at the start of the sheet music is a recommendation to see Luther Vandross and Jennifer Holliday singing the song for "stylistic authenticity". Well, thanks to the magic of YouTube there is a video of the pair singing it, ironically with Paul Simon, and totally stomping the composer vocally in the process.
Watching the video and listening to Jennifer Holiday's vocal pyrotechnics, I am not sure we can be that authentic, but we sure can try!

New Eclectic Season

The Pink Singers season has started again, and none too soon I might add. It was with a bit of a hop, skip and a jump that I went to rehearsal, running into Ali, Gill and Kate O on the way (the last actually missing gay Sunday at the zoo!) and it was like the first day of school all over again, but with classmates you actually like. Of course there were many new members too, some of whom looked shell shocked even before we started rehearsing! Now that we have auditions, I imagine that it is quite stressful, but I think we did our best to make them feel welcome. Fingers crossed for them. We have 4 slots in the tenors this season, but there are about twice as many would-be Pinkies for our voice part, so there has to be some selection process.

As usual, the first rehearsal is also when we get a peek at the repertoire for this season. It is typically diverse, and we sang two songs yesterday: Rutter's For The Beauty Of The Earth which is is typical saccharine sweet loveliness, and Brecht's Mack The Knife. I think we did a fairly creditable job all considered, and the latter inspired the album art for this season's rehearsal tracks. My Pink Bits is actually open for business, but I won't be posting access until the foruth week when the choir has settled down. In the interim, get in touch if you want to take a peek!

Welcome back everyone!

Over The Rainbow

Here's a bit of morning happiness courtesy of the ever brilliant Mandy Patinkin. I love this version because the song itself is wonderful as it is, needing no embellishment, and Mandy's crystal voice is a perfect fit.

When all the world is a hopeless jumble,
And the raindrops tumble all around,
Heaven opens a magic lane.

When all the clouds darken up the skyway,
There's a rainbow highway to be found,
Leading from your windowpane,
To a place behind the sun,
Just a step beyond the rain.

Somewhere, over the rainbow,
Way up high,
There's a land that I heard of once in a lullaby.

Somewhere, over the rainbow,
Skies are blue,
And the dreams that you dare to dream,
Really do come true.

Some day I'll wish upon a star,
And wake up where the clouds are far behind me.
Where troubles melt like lemon drops,
Away above the chimney tops that's where you'll find me!

Somewhere, over the rainbow blue birds fly,
Birds fly over the rainbow,
Why then, oh why, can't I?

Someday I wish upon a star,
And wake up where the clouds are far behind me.
Where troubles melt like lemon drops,
Away above the chimney tops that's where you'll find me!

Somewhere over the rainbow blue birds fly,
Birds fly over the rainbow,
Why then, oh why, can't I?

If happy little blue birds fly,
Beyond the rainbow,
Why, oh why, can't I?

Pride London 2009 - What Are We Singing?

As regulars know the Pink Singers will be celebrating our 26th London Pride march this year. We started back in 1983 when the march was markedly less festive.This year we will be on the stage as usual, and praying for great weather and suitable amplification.

The question remains which songs in our repertoire we will be performing. The Pink Insider doesn't know for sure but has heard on the grapevine that we will be doing three numbers (still very subject to confirmation):

California Dreamin'
The Mamas and Pappas classic - the version we're singing is actually very similar to the original arrangement, apart from the end.

Seventies Dance Party
No gig would be complete without a medley, and what better than a montage of seventies classics? We have rehearsed this piece since the start of the season, but the Pink Insider hears that we'll be joined on stage by Paleday to glam it up!

And what is the mystery third song? Stay tuned...

Fair Phyllis

Here is one of the madrigals the Pinkies will be performing for the summer concert. Quite a difficult piece, but expertly sung here by the King's Singers.

A Few Random Things

The Pink Insider has discovered the power of Twitter and sadly is starting to microblog there. I won't release the address yet, because I fear that I might eventually give up over here on the regular blog. There is a certain elegance to being able to write in complete sentences. Here are a few things I've posted over there already.

1. MuseScore
I am a fan of cross platform and especially open source software, even more so when it is free. When it comes to musical notation the software I use is the ridiculously expensive Sibelius. That's why I am very glad to see the marvellous MuseScore available for download. Check it out now!

2. Inuit Throat Singing
If you went on one of the Pink Singers winter weekends away a number of years ago, you may remember Fran trying to teach us how to "throat sing". Of course, having never heard it before, none of her acolytes could actually do it, so it is interesting all these years later to see a couple of pros (okay, high school girls) performing it so well.
The first thing to say is that it sounds an awful lot like burping (I have a cousin who given a can of warm Coke and a firm shake can burp through his ABCs) but in a rather controlled way, so it can create a tempo like a percussion instrument. The second thing to say is that the resonance chamber in the neck seems to fill and empty like a bullfrog. Very cool and strangely hypnotic.

All Over The World

We ran through All Over The World yesterday, the joint song for Voices Of Our City, the joint concert by the Pink Singers, LGMC and Diversity at Various Voices London 2009.

Sadly I can't embed it here, but the YouTube video is taken from, of all things, Xanadu. Really, how gay is that!

Il Faudra Leur Dire

I have never heard this song before, and the only reason I am posting it is that it is the joint song for our Parisian concert. The actual arrangement is much better than this version, and obviously is not going to be sung by children.

Why Terminators Transport Naked

One of life's great mysteries answered. My favourite bit?

What about the Austrian accents?
It's hot!

Teardrop

I'm a fan of Massive Attack, and I love Protection, the song they did with Tracey Thorn from Everything But The Girl. This season Andy M from the choir decided to arrange Teardrop, of which the original and frankly bizarre music video is embedded above.

We rehearsed it for the first time yesterday and what can I say? I think Andy's arrangement goes beyond the original. His arrangement emphasises its wistfulness and seems to heighten the tinge of sadness even further. I love it!