The choir were sounding great this Sunday 2nd! I felt they were really capturing the spirit of the piece and doing a great job of  negotiating the changes of tempo and mood within the piece. The programme notes for this Sundays performance along with the poem are below and I am greatly looking forward to hearing the choir in full voice in what will should be a very entertaining evening of music from Bernstein and Elgar amongst others. Now I …

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I’m off to Glasgow tomorrow for another rehearsal and looking forward to hearing the choir again. I hope I’ve got the tempi markings right this time so that the contrast between sections is clear. It will also make the faster sections more comfortable to sing.
The months have flown by and it’s strange to be approaching the end of the project. I am always uplifted by the commitment of the choir and I’m hoping that the piece will fit in well …

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It was great to visit the rehearsal on the 2nd March and apologies for not writing sooner.
The choir’s enthusiasm for the project really is greatly appreciated and it is wonderful for me to hear sections of the piece sung so well. I hope I have not written anything too hard to sing; unnecessary complexity should always be avoided and I do strive to do this. I appreciate that 12/8 compound time looks complex to the eye but I hope that …

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In a little over a week we will have two performances from Adopt-a-Composer partnerships in quick succession:
On Saturday 8th May, Colinton Amatuer Orchestral Society will be performing at George Watson’s College, Edinburgh. Along with Holst’s Jupiter and Haydn’s Symphony No.104, the concert will feature the première performance of Nina’s piece for the group, A Book of Walks. It starts at 7.30 and ticklets are £5.00, or £3.00 for students.
And on Sunday 9th May, Glasgow Lyric Choir RSAMD Concert Hall, Glasgow. As …

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Managed to send the 2nd draft of the piece on 1/2/10. Hopefully the CD recordings of vocal lines are helping with the learning of the piece and so far feedback has been positive and helpful with much appreciated advice from Evelyn and Steve. I am attending a rehearsal on 2nd March with David and this will give me a clearer idea of how the piece is evolving and what I need to do so strengthen sections. It’s always an ongoing …

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I enjoyed a fantastic concert by The Glasgow Lyric Choir on November 22nd. I was very pleased I made the journey in the poor weather and great to hear them in their full splendor with orchestra.
The piece is going well despite a couple of weeks off with flu. I am now setting the ‘From A Railway Carriage’ poem; previously I had wanted to combine with the Alexander Smith poem ‘Glasgow’ but I found there was enough strong imagery in the …

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Choir Practice
Members meeting Nick
Members listening to Nick

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Sept 19th MEETING – Sommerset House London
Introduced to Steve and Evelyn of the Glasgow Lyric Choir and to David Horne, my mentor for the project. Discussed rehearsal and concert dates and made arrangements to visit the choir in Glasgow on 29th September. We also discussed the current repertoire and possible texts for the composition including Christopher Marlowe’s ‘Seven Deadly Sins’ passage form Faust, Whale by D.M.Thomas and also the possibility of using a text from a Glasgow poet or other …

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I hope you are all enjoying being involved in this project as much as we are. Nick, our composer, attended our choir practice on 29th September when he discussed some ideas for texts and let us listen to little bits of his composition. Everyone found this interesting and there were quite a few suggestions re texts. He followed this up by sending a few examples he had picked out from further research from which the choir members quickly favoured a …

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Over the course of the next year you can follow the composers and the amateur music groups they are collaborating with through this blog. You can focus on any particular partnership by selecting one of the six ‘Partnership Blogs’ located to the right hand column, or just see all of them through the front page. We hope you enjoy the site, the work that’s produced and we look forward to reading your comments!

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