Competition, Vindication, Learning

We're back! And the Pinkies come bearing a prize for second place in the Manchester Amateur Choral Competition. As you know, I have written about my misgivings when it comes to choral competitions, but in the end, I am quite happy to admit that I was somewhat mistaken, and the experience of being in a choral competition again was much more pleasant this time round.

Second place was a tremendous achievement, especially when you consider that we only had 2 months of vocal rehearsals and 3 weeks of choreography rehearsals. At the same time, none of the competition pieces are in our winter concert repertoire, which may be seen as dividing our attention a little. Even so, the majority of us recognized the challenge for what it was, and knuckled down to some serious memory work, and at the end of the say we could spend most of that short time polishing the performance.

Manchester is a beautiful city, even in the torrential rain and gale force winds, and the organizers from the MGLC were gracious hosts. This year, the real tragedy is that they did not manage to secure funding for the event, and are so reliant on ticket sales to pay back the bills for the event. I'm crossing my fingers that they at least break even, but from the way the audience filled the auditorium (even discounting the choirs) I am at least somewhat optimistic that this will happen. They deserve massive applause for making it happen this year though.

We arrived early at the venue, and because it was somewhat chaotic and there wasn't much room to warm up, we ended up rehearsing in the foyer. The stage check also proved to be a bit of a downer when we realised that the stage not only had no risers, it had wasn't even sloped. It put paid to the original plans for the cross formation for Locus Iste, but the consummate professionals we are, the show must go on!

And go on it did! Actually we were amongst the earliest to perform which meant there were fewer members of the audience in the auditorium. These conditions are hard at the best of times, but we put on a proficient performance and managed to get a standing ovation at the end of Italian Salad from some of the judges.

Choral competitions are always interesting because I have a vicarious interest in seeing how other choirs do things. Over the last five or so years the Pink Singers have maintained our sense of family, but our look has become ever more professional. I think Pinkies are proud to be Pinkies and this shows in how we dress, stand and behave on stage. There were a number of choirs who looked sloppy or messy, and very few who can "perform", and not just "sing", like we do. We were undoubtedly helped by our new pink accessories, the handiwork of the very diligent and skillful Mikki and Karin.

Then there are other choirs who are so beyond our league it just isn't funny, and it is both humbling and an honour to see such greatness. I'm talking of the eye-opening Cottontown Chorus, who are without a doubt, one of the slickest choirs I have ever seen. Barbershop is a difficult musical style at the best of times and they had such a beautiful sound, a breathtaking dynamic range, and moves to die for. I was deeply impressed.

I guess the question then is whether the Pinkies want to be that kind of choir, and it isn't clear that we do. I was watching us perform later that afternoon in St. Ann's square, in the pouring rain, and thinking, "Look at us, we're performing well, we're having such a good time, and that's what counts." And there was the meal together that evening in Villagio followed by drinks and dancing in Via Fossa that night which reminded me that we don't really need to compete with other choirs to share our special Pinkies magic.

But we can still learn, and there is always room for improvement. I know I would like us to learn our lines earlier, so we can spend the time on the repertoire as we did with the contest, polishing and buffing, and not just learning the notes. It does mean that everyone will have to up their game, certainly in terms of learning the music, fast and early in the season.

We are getting there, and I am re-energized to bring that polish to our winter concert!

Edit: Bonus! Check out Oskar's photos of us warming up and on stage. There are even more photos available - links are in the Pinkies On The Web column to the right.

Edit edit: And now I've added videos of the performance - more in the Pink Insider YouTube channel in the list of links to the right!

A Week Into 2008, A Fortnight To Go

There is no hanging around this season! Normally we have a concert in December which gives us time to breathe over the Christmas and New Year until we reconvene in February. This winter though, because of Paris, our own concert is in just two weeks' time. That's why we had a rehearsal yesterday, the second of only two before we perform at the Royal Academy!

Despite the relatively short break, it was quite clear that our voices had come a little undone over the festive season (too many mince pies and mulled wine), and Mladen had to take us through what felt like an eternity of warmups before we got even close to our pre-holiday sound. As Cilla said later "some of the cobwebs needed dusting off".

Although the vocal cords were a little rusty, thankfully it seemed that almost everyone had learned the lyrics off by heart. We opened the rehearsal, as we will the concert, with Jenkins' Dies Irae, and the intensity now builds up into the piece rather than (as in the past) petering off when people make up the words! I know I have been going on and on about it, but I really do love the piece, and we are now doing it justice.

We aren't performing everything we have learnt this season - the remarkably difficult When I Fall In Love being a case in point - which does give us a bit of a breather. The French songs Dirait'On and Hymne à L'amour seemed to be sung without a hitch, and the only song which caught me off guard was Fields Of Gold where I kept getting the "among" and "upon", and "walked" and "lie" lyrics mixed up. Easily repaired!

The end of the rehearsal was choreography again, and it was the sopranos and altos turn to polish up Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend. One thing I have noticed is that no matter how simple the choreography designed for us is, we have to make it even simpler, because it just works better that way. Diamonds was originally to have rather complicated marching band formations on the stage, but it was looking rather messy, and we are now much more comfortably standing essentially in two or four rows. That's better!

Kudos especially to sweet, sweet Karin and Charlotte for their vamping up the moves and looking so sexy.

That's It! Bonjour Paris!

Yep. The last rehearsal before Paris - we perform on Saturday! - and it was a good one. The harmonies are sounding tight, the dynamics are more or less in place and perhaps most importantly, we are starting to look like we are enjoying being on stage rather than looking terrified. There are some songs like Big Band Bash and ABBA Pink which you almost can't help but dance along to. Of course ABBA has its own choreography, but Big Band Bash, which has no formal moves, is one song which really gets you tapping your feet - and we do!

The other song which, surprisingly, has that foot-tapping quality is Dies Irae with its aggressive vocals and furious rhythm. Unfortunately, as expected, it is incredibly difficult to learn the lyrics, so instead of a looking "evil" (Mladen's words) we look more like we are concentrating on what words are coming next. Mladen tested each of the sections on our knowledge of the lyrics yesterday; thanks to Johnathon's hood, Celso cunningly managed to sing the lyrics with no obvious sheet music (see picture!).

The biggie last evening was the choreography rehearsal for Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend. We're not doing this in Paris, but it is going to be in the winter concert on the 19th of January. Some of the moves are sexy, some border on the risqué, but the sops and altos really threw themselves into it. I must say that I was especially impressed with Karin and Cilla for whom the moves seemed to come naturally. The two choreographers were pretty good too and seemed to be aware of the limitations of our choir - especially the inability for us to move legs and arms at the same time! - and steered adroitly around them.

Off to Paris on Friday morning! Phillip, Simon, Liang and I are checking in early and grabbing a champagne breakfast before heading off. Hey you only live once! The next time (most of) the choir meets we will be in L'Open Café. See you there Friday night!

P.S. The sheer number of exclamation marks in this post belies! my! excitement!