Last Saturday I had the rather remarkable experience of being one of ten young soloists performing as part of The Durham Singers St Matthew Passion in Durham Cathedral. I have sung in the Cathedral on a couple of occasions previously - Mozart's Requiem and Britten's Noyes Fludde - so I had some idea of what a formidable task it is to fill the space safely, particularly when singing under the tower which although is logistically good, it isn't the best place acoustically. But this time it felt like it didn't matter how vast the area was, the emotion was so high that it seemed there was no way it couldn't be filled. This was an occasion which I left feeling like I had grown and changed by being part of it, a feeling which I hope was shared by the audience members. I think that in the end music should always affect us in such a way if we can allow it to, even if it is only by subtle amounts (though this time the effect certainly was very measurable!).
The period orchestra was the absolute highlight for me. It is always so fascinating to hear a sound world other than the one we usually live in these days, even if we can never perceive it in quite the same way as Bach's audience would have. With some wonderful instruments (Theorbo, Oboe da Caccia, Viola da Gamba, etc.) and even more wonderful musicians, the orchestra really added something amazing to the performance.
There are so many other aspects I could talk about which really contributed to such a moving experience but it would easily amount to pages and pages of me rambling about how great everything was when there are already several reviews and blogs out there already which sum up far better than I could the kind of experience it was:
"St Matthew Passion, The Durham Singers and Ensemble, Durham Cathedral" by Gavin Engelbrecht
"St Matthew Passion Concert review" by Amy Charlotte Ryan
"Singing St Matthew" by Jane Shuttleworth
Sunday, 1 December 2013
Friday, 15 November 2013
"Let us entertain you"
I am currently sat waiting to go out and brave the cold to walk down to my local church, St. Paul's Spennymoor, for the final rehearsal of Sunday's fundraising concert. It's going to be quite a relief to sing something a bit more lighthearted than what my audition rep and St Matthew preparations have afforded me over the past term. In addition to some fun choral pieces I'll be getting out an old favourite of mine - "Someone is sending me flowers" - which I'm surprised I haven't had occasion to sing in the church before but I'm sure everyone will enjoy. It's always nice to come back to a piece you have sung time and time again with great success, like snuggling in to a blanket in some ways, so very relaxing and comforting.
It's always a lot of fun singing with the church choir. I have sang with them for about 11 years now and they have always been a great support. Performing in such a low pressure and friendly environment always brings me a nice reminder of why I am singing and how I came to sing in the first place. Unfortunately it seems that less and less I am able to sing with them these days because of clashing events but they always warmly welcome me back and I'm looking forward to seeing everyone again.
For this particular concert we will be joining with singers from Whitworth Church whom we often team up with when we want to augment the choir and some of whom were with us when we invited churches from across Spennymoor to join us in recording a CD with last year. I'm excited to hear what we sound like as a whole as this will be the first time I hear this particular mix of people all joined together. Hopefully the event will be a lot of fun for everyone who attends!
More details about the event can be found here.
It's always a lot of fun singing with the church choir. I have sang with them for about 11 years now and they have always been a great support. Performing in such a low pressure and friendly environment always brings me a nice reminder of why I am singing and how I came to sing in the first place. Unfortunately it seems that less and less I am able to sing with them these days because of clashing events but they always warmly welcome me back and I'm looking forward to seeing everyone again.
For this particular concert we will be joining with singers from Whitworth Church whom we often team up with when we want to augment the choir and some of whom were with us when we invited churches from across Spennymoor to join us in recording a CD with last year. I'm excited to hear what we sound like as a whole as this will be the first time I hear this particular mix of people all joined together. Hopefully the event will be a lot of fun for everyone who attends!
More details about the event can be found here.
Wednesday, 13 November 2013
Auditioning
As a young singer a lot of the concerts and events I have sang at have been ones which I was invited to through people who have either heard me sing previously or whom have had me recommended to them, so when it comes to auditioning it is quite an alien experience - up to now there have been very few things which I have gone through a formal audition process for. In fact, right now, I can only think of three: Weekend School, Samling, and as of Monday this week, Music College. Thankfully this week's audition was a very positive experience with good feedback and I'm hopeful that I will be offered a place, but I still have some time to wait before I hear anything.
The audition day itself felt rather long as there were three panels and an academic interview, but perhaps it is good to get so many opportunities to perform in an audition setting - it is certainly a completely different skill to performing for a large audience, and I'm sure this period of auditioning will create a solid foundation of experience to help calm me in future auditions.
In the mean time I still have four more left to go, one in Manchester and three in London. I'm looking forward to meeting up with old friends who are at various universities (one three years younger but already there before me - ah, the patience needed to study singing), and now that the first audition is out of the way I am, if I dare I say it, looking forward to the rest!
The audition day itself felt rather long as there were three panels and an academic interview, but perhaps it is good to get so many opportunities to perform in an audition setting - it is certainly a completely different skill to performing for a large audience, and I'm sure this period of auditioning will create a solid foundation of experience to help calm me in future auditions.
In the mean time I still have four more left to go, one in Manchester and three in London. I'm looking forward to meeting up with old friends who are at various universities (one three years younger but already there before me - ah, the patience needed to study singing), and now that the first audition is out of the way I am, if I dare I say it, looking forward to the rest!
Monday, 28 October 2013
Amalgamation and archive
I've decided to use this as my primary blog rather than the blogging platform I've been testing out on my weebly website (http://www.charlotteheslop.co.uk). Hopefully if I do everything right it should redirect here once I'm done fixing it! Since I'll be deleting that one I am copying the old posts from there in to this post to save them for future reference.
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Durham Singers 18/01/13
I recently answered a few questions for the Durham Singers with whom I'll be singing in Noye's Fludde, playing the role of Mrs Noye, on the 2nd March at Durham Cathedral. It was great singing the Mozart Requiem with them last November so I'm really excited about being able to join them again. I adore Britten so I've loved learning it and can't wait to get together with the other musicians.
Click here to read the interview!
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Samling Academy 2013 (and other events) 07/10/13
I will once again be taking part in Samling Academy this year. Our masterclasses start this Friday and you can come and see the end product of our work at the Samling Academy Concert on the 20th October in the Northern Rock Foundation Hall at The Sage Gateshead. (You can buy tickets here!) I'm excited to once again work with Patricia MacMahon, Caroline Dowdle, Mandy Demetriou, as well as my fabulous teacher Miranda Wright, and will be working with Jonathan Gunthorpe for the first time this year. This academy provides valuable intensive masterclasses which last year taught me a huge amount and I'm hoping to learn just as much and more this time around.
In the meantime The Durham Singers will be hosting a St Matthew Passion workshop on the 12th October to explore the work ahead of their performance of it on the 23rd of November in which I will be singing as one of twelve soloists. Having sang with The Durham Singers on several occasions I am really looking forward to joining them again. They are a fantastic chamber choir who work at a high standard and are all so passionate about their music. I love their commitment to community music and their support of young musicians, from providing solo opportunities, performing compositions of young composers, working with younger choirs, I think it is a truly wonderful thing they are doing for Durham and the North East.
I am also excited to say that I will be a guest soloist with the Cleveland Philharmonic Choir for the first time on the 16th November for their "100 voices" concert. I will have more information about that a bit closer to the time.
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Newcastle and Samling 16/10/13
The Newcastle Cathedral lunchtime recital series for this term has been cancelled so I will no longer be singing on the 29th November. I have been invited to sing next term instead so keep an eye out for a new date.
This years first Samling Academy weekend was a lot of fun with a lot gained. In particular working with actor Alex Hassell seemed to really take everyone to new levels. I certainly haven't been able to stop rehearsing things in my mind with these new ideas even when I have to stop physically practising. I imagine it'll take a month or two to really absorb everything talked about and to be able to utilise it fully but even trying these things for the first time has helped so much. After hearing for several years people talking about "new thoughts" in singing I feel like things have finally clicked and I have ways to make it happen now.
If you want to hear the results of our work don't forget to come along to the Samling Academy Concert: http://www.sagegateshead.com/event/samling-concert28285/
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Durham Singers 18/01/13
I recently answered a few questions for the Durham Singers with whom I'll be singing in Noye's Fludde, playing the role of Mrs Noye, on the 2nd March at Durham Cathedral. It was great singing the Mozart Requiem with them last November so I'm really excited about being able to join them again. I adore Britten so I've loved learning it and can't wait to get together with the other musicians.
Click here to read the interview!
----
Samling Academy 2013 (and other events) 07/10/13
I will once again be taking part in Samling Academy this year. Our masterclasses start this Friday and you can come and see the end product of our work at the Samling Academy Concert on the 20th October in the Northern Rock Foundation Hall at The Sage Gateshead. (You can buy tickets here!) I'm excited to once again work with Patricia MacMahon, Caroline Dowdle, Mandy Demetriou, as well as my fabulous teacher Miranda Wright, and will be working with Jonathan Gunthorpe for the first time this year. This academy provides valuable intensive masterclasses which last year taught me a huge amount and I'm hoping to learn just as much and more this time around.
In the meantime The Durham Singers will be hosting a St Matthew Passion workshop on the 12th October to explore the work ahead of their performance of it on the 23rd of November in which I will be singing as one of twelve soloists. Having sang with The Durham Singers on several occasions I am really looking forward to joining them again. They are a fantastic chamber choir who work at a high standard and are all so passionate about their music. I love their commitment to community music and their support of young musicians, from providing solo opportunities, performing compositions of young composers, working with younger choirs, I think it is a truly wonderful thing they are doing for Durham and the North East.
I am also excited to say that I will be a guest soloist with the Cleveland Philharmonic Choir for the first time on the 16th November for their "100 voices" concert. I will have more information about that a bit closer to the time.
----
Newcastle and Samling 16/10/13
The Newcastle Cathedral lunchtime recital series for this term has been cancelled so I will no longer be singing on the 29th November. I have been invited to sing next term instead so keep an eye out for a new date.
This years first Samling Academy weekend was a lot of fun with a lot gained. In particular working with actor Alex Hassell seemed to really take everyone to new levels. I certainly haven't been able to stop rehearsing things in my mind with these new ideas even when I have to stop physically practising. I imagine it'll take a month or two to really absorb everything talked about and to be able to utilise it fully but even trying these things for the first time has helped so much. After hearing for several years people talking about "new thoughts" in singing I feel like things have finally clicked and I have ways to make it happen now.
If you want to hear the results of our work don't forget to come along to the Samling Academy Concert: http://www.sagegateshead.com/event/samling-concert28285/
Thursday, 22 August 2013
Albert Herring
This summer I took part in Samling Academy
One thing that I absolutely love is watching how my fellow
singers progress. Normally this happens every couple of months or more when I perhaps
see them in a masterclass or concert and notice some improvement, but in the
case of this project it was amazing to see just how far everyone developed in
the space of two weeks. I will miss everyone a lot and can’t wait for October
which is the next Samling
Academy
Personally I had my own problems to deal with, taking care of
a delicate voice after several weeks of coughing and though I coped and got
through it fine it has made me realise that perhaps I should be taking better
care of myself in general to prevent these things happening.
I’m sure I’ll think of more things about this experience in
the future – it was such a big project that there is a lot to talk about – but I
will leave it there for now.
Wednesday, 23 November 2011
Text, text, text!
On Saturday I was a participant in a masterclass, in which one point above all others was drilled into us - words! Too often we think "I am going to sing to you now.", and let the focus on this get in the way of conveying the text itself. The notes will come once learnt, and of course a rock solid technique is vital, but a song is nothing if there is no emotion or meaning in the words.
One way of helping with this is to recite the words without the music, in their original poetic format, taking great care and detail in the way you want each word to be expressed to carry your meaning over to the audience. Tell it as though you were a highly skilled actor delivering a monologue. Now keep doing this, until you are completely happy with your interpretation - how can you convey meaning unless you're sure of what you want it to mean yourself? And once you're completely happy? Forget that interpretation, find a new one. Explore the text from all possible angles, until you have the deepest understanding of it. Now, imagine that instead of "singing" you are "saying words to notes". Imagine that you are reciting the poem as before, but this time notes are coming out. It's such a hard thing for me to describe, whilst I am still only learning myself, but when you really get it, there is such a great feeling of freedom.
One way of helping with this is to recite the words without the music, in their original poetic format, taking great care and detail in the way you want each word to be expressed to carry your meaning over to the audience. Tell it as though you were a highly skilled actor delivering a monologue. Now keep doing this, until you are completely happy with your interpretation - how can you convey meaning unless you're sure of what you want it to mean yourself? And once you're completely happy? Forget that interpretation, find a new one. Explore the text from all possible angles, until you have the deepest understanding of it. Now, imagine that instead of "singing" you are "saying words to notes". Imagine that you are reciting the poem as before, but this time notes are coming out. It's such a hard thing for me to describe, whilst I am still only learning myself, but when you really get it, there is such a great feeling of freedom.
Friday, 4 March 2011
Keeping safe.
I was watching a masterclass last night, and something she said stuck in my head.
"If you break a violin bow, you can just buy another one. But you can't do that with your voice. You only get one. If you're lucky, you're born with one that's special, as most people here have been, but once it's gone there's nothing you can do about it."
Of course, this should seem obvious, but sometimes we all need a little reminder now and again.
"If you break a violin bow, you can just buy another one. But you can't do that with your voice. You only get one. If you're lucky, you're born with one that's special, as most people here have been, but once it's gone there's nothing you can do about it."
Of course, this should seem obvious, but sometimes we all need a little reminder now and again.
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