Singing Elgar in Hackney

August 17, 2010 at 11:56 am / by

Work hard, play hard and hobby hard, I say. My latest wintertime hobby is choral singing – I am a member of the Hackney Singers, a brilliant bunch of singers who bite off seriously tough choral projects, and meet weekly in St Luke’s in Hackney to chew furiously in time for lavish and great fun concerts. Our awesome musical direction is headed up by Mark Shanahan; as a bunch of enthusiastic amateurs we are very lucky to have such professional (and occasionally fearsome) lead.

I sing loudly whenever possible, but had never done anything like this before – singing with a full choir and supporting pro soloists. It turns out I’ve been an inclement-weather-hobbyist and choir appeals less on balmy summer evenings, but autumn is nigh, and I am beginning to limber up the vocal chords again, and see if I can remember anything about reading music.

Here we were singing the Dream of Gerontius by Elgar back in April: (I’m purple in the middle of the shot)

 
 

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