The academic year has drawn to a close, the students have all left, the final-year students are waiting to graduate later in the month: but the singing on campus continues.

Following on from last year’s workshops, this year I’ve been asked to do some more choral workshops for staff, former staff, postgraduate students and friends of the University – such is the enthusiaism for singing that some members of the Chorus begin to feel withdrawal symptoms once the summer concert has passed!

We’re now in the middle of a three-week course, which runs on Monday afternoons, for which I’ve collated some repertoire to suit. This year, we’ve been singing some plainsong, to work on flexibility and following the contours of phrases – we’re reading from antique notation, as a way of introducing the singers to it if they’ve not come across it before – as well as music by Dowland, Saint-Saens, and Tourdion, the sixteenth-century French partsong in praise of claret, which we’re singing with an English text expressing enthusiaism for English ale. We’ve been working through music very quickly, a way of keeping interest by introducing new pieces each week, but a testament also to the speed with which the group are picking up repertoire: it keeps me on my toes!

These workshops are always terrific fun: informal yet disciplined, as they are attended by people who want to work at choral singing. There’s lots of laughter, as well as lots of working on repertoire and aspects of choral technique – reading ahead, getting entries together, exploring dynamic contrasts, as well as making sure vowel-shapes are right and consonants are clear. It’s a perfect blend of working for pleasure, but with a sense of wanting to explore aspects of choral discipline.

The year may have finished, but the fun still continues…