This is probably a one-off blog, as I don't see me having the opprtunity to do this ever again. It was literally a once in a lifetime opportunity, and I made the most of it!
To begin at the beginning, with a short biography. I trained for 15 years, at school, and then with private lessons, to be an opera singer. I was pretty good, although I say so myself, and sang concerts in and near my home town, including "Oh, for the wings of a dove", Gilbert and Sullivan, (Trial by Jury), several amateur operettas, including understudy for Anna Glavari in the "Merry Widow", and as the soprano soloist in a small choir version of "The Messiah". I entered for the Ferrier Scholarship, a very prestigious one, and came third (this was a nation-wide contest), and auditioned for a couple of opera companies - the last one asked me to come back when I was a bit older. In those days, companies didn't like you to be under 24.
However, then I got the opportunity to get a job in the local theatre - The Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford upon Avon. By this stage I had realised that I really wasn't good enough to be a top class opera singer, and besides, I preferred earlier music than the grand opera I was training for, so I took the job. That part time job quickly became a full time one, and I found I had no time to take singing lessons, although I was fortunate to sing (briefly) with David Munrow (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Munrow) when he was at Stratford, and with a small group formed by the musical director, Guy Woolfenden (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guy_Woolfenden) who actually wrote a piece specially for me.
However, that was pretty much the end of my singing, as I really didn't have time to sing, and the theatre, and costuming, became my career. I spent many years in theatre, then got married, had a son, and he hated to hear me sing, so that was pretty much that.
Until a lovely lady called Tamsin Lewis, of Passamezzo http://www.livinghistory.co.uk/homepages/passamezzo/
invited me to go and sing rounds with some of her friends. I enjoyed this very much and took part in some of the "Lions part" activities http://www.thelionspart.co.uk/twelfthnight/ However, then my breathing got worse, I became allergic to some medication, and I had more or less a year out of life.
Always a fan of baroque music, I built a large collection of CD's, and when I got the opportunity to hear "The Sixteen" http://www.the-sixteen.org.uk/ sing the Allegri "Miserere" live at Spitalfields Church, I jumped at the chance. It was the beginning of my recovery. A free workshop on Monteverdi followed, with participation by the audience of local children, and a few adults, including me. I came home, bouncing , that I had "sung with The Sixteen" - a huge exaggeration, but what the heck!
And then, on Facebook, I saw an invitation to join a massive choir, singing "Messiah" with Harry Christophers and The Sixteen at the Royal Festival Hall. I shot an e-mail off immediately, and shortly after got a reply - I was in!!
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