Progress Report of the 2008 Season

John Lillis writes:

We are now just over half way through our ten-week season and the Chorus is already making a wonderful sound. We have 134 singers comprising 40 sopranos, 59 altos, 16 tenors and 19 basses. This year we have 18 brand new members.

Rehearsals are the usual mixture of hard work and good humour, resulting in a good night out for everyone. And we are greatly supported by our rehearsal accompanist Richard Bittleston, who is always several steps ahead of the conductor's thinking!

Work on the Stainer is progressing well. It is good that some of the singers have sung it before, but the vast majority are learning it from scratch. I was particularly pleased with how well they responded to "Fling Wide The Gates", which they now sing with great verve!

What has really engaged the singers though is the new work by William Hayward, "Ecclesia Aeterna". There have been numerous complimentary comments about both the words and the music. I know it is very pleasing for the librettist, Claire Dane, one of our sopranos, to hear her words brought to life through William's music. At our rehearsal on 13 February, William attended as accompanist and we devoted the entire practice to "Ecclesia". We have now sung through the whole piece and I'm sure everyone was thrilled with the very climactic ending.

Admission to our concerts is always free but we take a collection at the end for charity. This year the collection will be for St Joseph's African Aid. (more details on SJAA).

This year we will be honoured with the presence of the Mayor of Woking, Councillor Bryan Cross. Bryan's wife Helen is one of our altos and he is usually at our concerts anyway! But this year I have invited him to attend in his mayoral capacity.

I have already decided that, on concert night, we will sing at the Stainer first, followed by "Ecclesia Aeterna". Indeed it will be the very last thing which St Dunstan's Chorus will ever sing in the old church - it's going to be quite an emotional night!

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