This week (give or take a few days) marks my 20th anniversary of joining Vivamus and I thought it would be an excellent opportunity to contribute my first blog post for the choir.
how it all began
Back in the mists of time when I was a junior consultant, I was dispatched to Bristol on secondment for four days a week, which meant I couldn’t make Wednesday rehearsals at the choir I’d joined when I first moved to London. One of my best friends from university said “come and sing with my choir – they’re looking for more tenors for the next concert.” The music that term was Bach’s St John Passion which I vaguely knew but had never sung. Conducted by the inimitable Joe Nolan, we had a full baroque chamber orchestra and a couple of incredible soloists for the Evangelist and Jesus parts. That concert was semi-professionally recorded and I still think our performance compares favourably with some of those that have been issued on CDs/etc. The only thing that marred our performance was someone’s Nokia phone ringing at top volume just at the pause in the music where Jesus dies on the cross (thankfully removed from the recording).
conductors, characters and the art of being coaxed
Anyway, the quality of the singing and the friendliness of the choir was sufficient for me to quickly leave my old choir (staying just long enough to meet my wife, who now also sings in Vivamus) and join properly. The next concert was a total change with us singing arrangements of pop songs, including ABBA, the Beatles and Britney Spears – that variability has been a theme over the years. Joe soon left for Australia and after a brief time with a new conductor who only did one or two concerts, the brilliant Rufus Frowde began his long and continuing reign as our conductor. His mid-rehearsal anecdotal musings range from the moving to the bizarre but he is always patient with us and somehow manages to coax us into shape just in time for each and every concert. A few of my favourite moments… we started rehearsing the Rachmaninoff Vespers in January 2020 for an Easter concert that took, I think, 2 years to actually happen. However, it was simply amazing when we finally performed it, having learned how to sing in Church Slavonic through lockdown (with plenty of virtual projects and socials too).
favourite moments (and one i never want to sing again)
Our recent advent concert took in Will Todd’s second set of Jazz carols which are all sublime but includes a stunning arrangement of In the Bleak Midwinter, possibly just pipping the Darke version as my new favourite. For a while we had choir member (Izzy) who was also a fabulous saxophonist and that allowed us to do Richard Sisson’s Pied Beauty, most memorably at Southwark cathedral; I have a recording of this incredible piece from that service but it’s otherwise sadly absent from the internet. Byrd’s 5 part mass… I sadly had to miss the concert where the choir did his 4 part mass which is possibly my favourite piece of music ever. The Bach B minor Mass (the choir’s 10th anniversary concert), Britten’s St Nicholas and Karl Jenkins’ The Armed Man are three set piece concerts that stick in mind. A regular Faure Requiem every year at Easter to a packed St Martin in the Fields was also a real treat for a while, not needing a lot of rehearsal to polish. We’ve had concerts of sea shanties, madrigals, European part songs, renaissance, classical, medieval, modern you name it and we’ve almost certainly sung it. Part of the joy is doing wildly different music each term, while every so often playing the “when did we last sing this?” game. One piece, though, that I never want to do again is Michael Nyman’s Balancing the Books. Commissioned by The Swingles who use microphones, this is a technically challenging and thoroughly exhausting sing – I can’t find evidence that anyone else has been brave enough to take this on as a choir since us!
older voices and newer faces – pint optional, pub inevitable
I was talking with one of the altos after rehearsal the other week and we were saying that we could definitely no longer describe ourselves as young professionals. However, there are new members coming through every year across the full range of ages. Going out for a few beers after a concert remains a de rigour wind down (and celebration of another concert under the belt); for a long time, my job involved early starts with my team in different parts of Asia so we only go to the pub after rehearsals periodically but there is always a WhatsApp at about 9.20pm saying simply “Dev” or “George” which is all you need to know. One final Vivamus delight is that we always have amazing accompanists, but none who top Richard Hills. Each Christmas, we are treated to his ever-evolving fantasia on Christmas music – not just carols but pop songs and just about anything that the choir has dared him to work in just prior to the concert.
the stats
I’m an actuary by profession (though with a music-related PhD thrown in) so I can’t resist some statistics to finish with.
- 1 solo (thanks Rufus for finally picking me!)
- 2 (main) rehearsal venues
- 2 rebrandings
- 3 conductors
- 4 tours (that I’ve been on… there were several others that I couldn’t make)
- 4 voice parts sung in performance (I’ve been an honorary alto twice and jobbing baritone once, as well as tenor 2 and my normal home of tenor 1)
- 5 concerts in one term (we took on 3 extra paid Christmas gigs)
- 35 singers (give or take)
- 105 minutes of vocal exercise each week
- 20 fabulous years
Post written by Steve Hainsworth