25th ANNIVERSARY WORKSHOPS AND CONCERTS

To celebrate a quarter century of our partnership with Maddy Prior and the 25th anniversary of A Tapestry of Carols we invite you to join us on stage to perform with us on our December 2012 Carols and Capers tour. We aim to gather 150 singers (3 choirs of 50) to make these concerts truly memorable.

The concert venues will be at The Sage Gateshead, Birmingham Town Hall, and Salisbury City Hall. Workshops will be held at or near the concert halls.

To prepare for the concerts, Andy Watts will lead three day-long vocal workshops in October, each linked to one of the concert venues. Singers will learn arrangements from A Tapestry of Carols, Carols and Capers and the band’s extensive repertoire of seasonal music. At the end of the workshop several songs will be selected for performance. Singers will learn harmony parts and descants as well as the tunes and will be given a CD and sheet music to help them prepare for the concert. On the day of the concert the choir will join Maddy and The Carnival Band for a final rehearsal and sound check at about 5.00 pm. They will be able to enjoy the first part of the concert from specially reserved seats in the hall and will join the performers on stage at the beginning of the second half for their items, returning to their seats for the rest of the concert and, if the applause is deafening enough, rejoining Maddy and The Band for the encore.

PLEASE NOTE – the workshops are now all fully booked
You need to attend the workshop linked to the concert you will perform at. You only need to attend that workshop.

Workshop attendees MUST be available to sing in the concert and vice versa. They must attend the whole workshop and on the concert day they must be at the venue at the stated time (5 or 5.30 pm) for rehearsal and sound check.

Tickets for the workshop include a ticket for the concert in specially reserved seats so that the choir can enjoy the concert in full when they are not performing. In order to have easy access to and from the stage the seats will need to be in designated areas of the hall so this may limit your choice of seat.

Vocal ranges will be normal SATB and not extreme. Singers should be willing to sing harmony lines, and a basic ability to read music would be helpful. With the help of CDs it should be possible to memorize the 4 or 5 concert items.

The number of places at each workshop is limited to 50. Early application is recommended.