Category Archives: In-Choir Within

In-Choir Within: Charley Tench

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Meeting some of the singers with the University Chamber Choir. This week, alto Charley Tench.

At the Albert Hall: Charley Tench

At the Albert Hall: Charley Tench

How did you get into choral singing? I started singing in my local church choir back in Harrogate when I was six… only because the choir got the best biscuits and squash after church… Thank heavens for custard creams and Ribena!

What’s your favourite piece ? My favourite piece is Christus Factus Est by Bruckner as it was one of the most incredible and challenging pieces I’d ever sung. The outcome was always spectacular as it’s so powerful. Definitely a goosebumps moment!

What’s your best/worst memory about singing in a choir ? My favourite moment(s) are singing in Westminster Abbey and The Royal Albert Hall with my sixth form chamber choir back home. Both were equally overwhelming and emotional in completely different ways. Pure awesomeness. And my worst was setting a girl’s hair on fire with my candle during the procession of Once In Royal David’s City…

What do you find the most inspirational aspect about choral singing ? I love the balance and harmony of a choir. It’s so natural to get lost in music when singing as a team. It’s fabulous!

 

In-Choir Within: Steph Richardson

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Meeting some of the singers in the University Chamber Choir. This week, Steph Richardson in the altos.

How did you get into choral singing ? I have sung in many musicals, but University was my first hefty chamber choir experience.

Steph Richardson

Steph Richardson

What’s your favourite piece ? Of this year’s repetoire, probably ‘Our Love Is Here To Stay‘.

What’s your best/worst memory about singing in a choir ? Best: conducting Carol of the Bells from the back of the Cathedral at Christmas 2011. Seeing some members of the choir crying as we sang (and I conducted) Lullaby (Billy Joel) for the last time. Worst: Having an ichy foot in performance during the whole of ‘He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven‘.

What do you find is the most inspirational aspect of  choral singing ? When everyone’s different voices really come together it can be mesmerising and you can hear the depth of the song. The interesting thing about singing in a choir is that every part has a different tune to sing, so every choral singer has a different memory of the piece. Each person’s separate part is the melody to them. This is how the music comes together so well. To me, the alto line is the main, and often the most beautiful, line.

In-Choir within: David Newell

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Meeting some of the singers in the University Chamber Choir. This week, bass David Newell.

Bass desires: David Newell

Bass desires: David Newell

How did you get into choral singing ? I got into choral singing when I joined Wakefield Cathedral Choir at the age of six.

What’s your favourite piece ? My favourite piece is the ‘Agnus Dei’ from Vaughan Williams’ Mass in G Minor. I sang the solo from it in Salzburg Cathedral on tour.

What’s your best and worst memory of singing in a choir ? My best memory of singing in a choir is Charpentier’s Messe de Minuit at Midnight Mass (hence the name) with a small chamber orchestra. So Christmassy! My worst memory involves rather too much beer, so I shan’t go into it here…

What do you find the most inspirational aspect of choral singing ? The most inspiring thing in choral music is the homogeneous sound a choir can make. It is 100% human, no instruments to get in the way, hide behind or blame. When it is right it is the most right anything can be. Sublime.