Open rehearsal - a taster for the Grand Opening Concert 2014

The new season is about to kick off, and for the first time, our final rehearsal was an open rehearsal with the Ulster Orchestra and it's new principle conductor, Raphael Payare. This is part of Payare's vision for the future of musicmaking - to engage with audiences, and to invite them to undertand the process involved in bringing passion and finesse to a performance. 

Belfast Philharmonic Choir, with the Ulster Orchestra at rehearsal. Photo by S. Doughty 

There was a good turnout in the audience, though it was strange that there was never any applause, even after (several)  particulalry rousing renditions of the final few bars!

Stephen Doughty having a quiet word with the lads..

Percussion, waiting patiently.

audience arriving

An alto's-eye-view

The big Sing!

We held our annual Come and Sing at the weekend, and it was really great fun, with singers from all over Northern Ireland joining in.

The altos and some basses.. 

Stephen Doughty, our choir master, led the day. We whizzed through the whole of Brahms German Requiem in a couple of hours, which was an interesting challenge... After tackling a particulalry 'busy' passage, which Stephen described as 'Battling the fugues',  the singer next to me asked with some alarm, 'will we run through that again later..?' and I reassured her, 'Oh I really don't think so, we'll just GO FOR IT in the performance..'. In the first half an hour we'd learnt a few Doughty-House-Rules, largely to do with keeping an eye on him. (whatever next..). Not difficult considering his eye catching attire, ahem...

My camera had real trouble deciding where to focus on this.. This shirt doubles up as a useful eye test. If you look hard enough you'll be able to see a fluffy animal.. 

 Stephen communicated with us, unusually, using most of the semaphore flags.. This one, below, is the letter P, which he used regularly, mostly when we were Perfect, obviously.

Our Orchestra was the fantastic duo of Gail and Stuart, who played four handedly and did the most wonderful (and fast-moving) job. They were a couple of peas in a pod and a pleasure to watch.

sitting still before we get started... 

...and in fast motion in the fugue..

Best quotes of the day from Stephen - GOOD LUCK, SEE YOU AFTER THE NEXT PAGE... IF IN DOUBT, KEEP GOING...

(note: these phrases are NEVER uttered during our usual Philharmonic rehearsals.)

Two lovely lady tenors who join us regularly for the Come and Sing

Cecilia doing a wonderful job giving out the music

If you haven't attended one of these 'turn up and join in' days, I really recommend that you come to the next one. It is fun and the performances are always surprisingly enjoyable.

We have a bright new friendly face at the helm, with our new Chairperson being Carol Abel, from the Alto section.

Ground Control to Major Tom...

Things are moving along nicely, with the auditions this week for the new singers. Good luck all! To help everyone settle in, I thought it was time to show and tell and put some faces to the names. These are some of the folks involved with keeping the engine running, or the Cabin Crew, so to speak..

Tom, our Chairman

Iestyn, Treasurer

Sally, Hon Secretary

Cecelia, in charge of our Music Books

Oonagh, 1st Alto Section leader 

Clare, 1st Soprano Section Leader

Lisette, 2nd Alto Section Leader

Alastair, Bass Section Leader

Julie, 2nd Soprano section Leader, and your Blogger

Michael, Tenor Section Leader


And, extremely important, our tea co-ordinator..

Derek-the-tea

There's your starter pack, more to follow..!

Belfast Phil is Open For business...!!

Cooler mornings, conkers on the trees, and the annual BBQ? It must mean the start of another new season! A very full programme for the autumn, so nothing for it but to jump right in. The first two rehearsal evenings (the first two Wednesdays in September, at 7.30 St Bride's Church Hall, Derryvolgie Avenue Belfast), are Open Rehearsals, where everyone is welcome to come along to try us out, and if you enjoy it you can audition for a place in the choir. Yes! Belfast Philharmonic needs YOU!

For more information about joining, please email:   recruitment@belfastphilharmonic.org.uk
or call 07792 450522

Childrens voices and bike birthdays!

We are approaching the last concert of the season, and it was lovely sharing rehearsals with the  Philharmonic Youth Choir. Rebekah Coffey has been leading them beautifully, their sound is a real treat.

The recent bike days out have been dominated by birthdays. Firstly, it was John's Big Day, which we celebrated by getting the train to Newry and cycling up to Portadown, stopping for lunch in Scarva. The surprise was from Fiona, Robin's wife, who had sent a bottle of champagne along, even though they couldn't be there in person that day, aw!

Unfortunatley, the cafe wouldn't let us open it (boo), so he had to drink it all himself when he got home.
Instead, we helped him celebrate with our usual energy-snacks.

And then it was the Bike Birthday, a year since we started our monthly outings, which was marked be a revisit of the first trail. And of course, more cake! However, this year, an extra bonus was added with a visit to Sentry Hill. The email below was sent to John as a thank you from Fiona - it makes funny reading, and is a perfect report of the flavour of each lovely day out. 

Hi John/Maureen
Thank you so much for the absolutely amazing cycle ride last Saturday. 
You had planned the perfect day out to the last detail, and it was just
brilliant.  I will never forget the face of the guide at Sentry Hill
when he was talking about the death of the King of Tonga and Richard
interjected that he had been at his funeral 6 weeks ago - it was just a
jaw-droppingly priceless moment!
How can the next cycle ride beat this one... 
Love
Fiona
-- 

Magic

After incredible amounts of efforts and mammoth organizational feats, the Titanic weekend delivered the most amazing, atmospheric, moving and emotional performances. While the choir may be feeling that we are seeing a LOT of each other, with the long rehearsals, Phillip Hammond's Requiem for the Lost Souls of The Titanic was a triumph and it was great to be a part of it.


I don't have many photos, (unlike most of the audience, ahem) but if any of you do, please send them to me so we can share them. My son had my camera during the performance but the battery died - though it was worth it to hear his descriptions of us, in leau of pictures. He declared that some of us BOB when we're singing (eek - so long as we bob together..) and he did fair impressions of the most animated among us. It seems to be about Eyebrows.

These photos, while not intentionally blurred, have a certain etherial quality.

Business at rehearsal..

Sunday morning.

And to both our conductors, a big Thank You.

hectic season...!

This must be the busiest season...EVER! The past weeks have been devoted to both Brahms and hammond, and last week we did the Brahms concert at the Ulster Hall. We enjoyed meeting the orchestra's new conductor, and while she is small in stature, she is LARGE in wonderful arm-waving conducting. As a choir, its so lovely to follow an arm-waver.

An often overlooked sparkle offered at the concerts is our choirmasters attention to personal detail. This time his tie was quietly, but positively, Starry.

Rehearsals for Phillip Hammond's new work Requiem for the Lost Souls of the Titanic, have been crowded and dynamic, a real contrast to the Brahms. Three choirs and a large brass band filled St Bride's in a squeeze, though obviously we have more space in the Cathedral.

As you can see, this soprano secured her space in between two tubas, space was so tight...

Have you noticed how some of the tenors are getting so TALL?

I had a friend who attended the rehearsal in St Anne's, and she reports that the sound is amazing. And the choir boys are Something Else. Haunting, focused and marvelous.