Workshop

Cantatrice was fortunate in hosting a recent visit from choral conductor, David Lawrence, when he took the Steyning and Horsham choirs through their paces in a choral workshop.

David is a popular workshop leader with Britain's choirs and leading choral organisations such as youngchoirs.net (formerly BFYC), Making Music, Sing for Pleasure, and the Association of British Choral Directors. As a conducting teacher he directs courses for, amongst others, the Voices Foundation and Canford International Summer School of Music. He is a respected adjudicator of festivals and competitions, and a National Adjudicator for the televised BBC Radio 3 Choir of the Year competition. He conducts for BBC Television's Songs of Praise, and is frequently in demand as a consultant in choral education.

Here's what choir member, Beryl Vincent, had to say about the workshop.

"Only a few weeks left before a big concert and a certain piece in the programme is becoming tedious to some members and is greeted with groans when about to be sung, with no real progress being made. Our Musical Director, Zoë Peate, suggested that a workshop might be a help to provide some extra stimulation for all the programme.

Having met David Lawrence at a workshop herself, Zoë asked him to come to the choir just three weeks before our concert. Some members were apprehensive not knowing what to expect. But he quickly put everyone at ease and had the choir laughing during a warm up geared to the work which was to come.

David took us through our music helping us through passages we had found difficult and showing us how to improve our timing and have a better understanding of the dynamics of the pieces. Concentration in the choir was palpable and left us all feeling much more confident and even able to cheer when asked to sing the piece which had caused a groan!

It was a joyous morning, as are all our practice mornings with Zoë, leaving everyone asking for more workshops in the future."

Well, the ladies got their wish because David Lawrence returned to Steyning to take them through their paces again! The second workshop took place in November 2007.