Do you remember singing at school? Perhaps it was a favourite hymn at assembly, a song learned for a school concert, or the excitement (and occasional nerves!) of standing on stage with your classmates. For many of us, those early musical experiences have stayed with us long after our schooldays ended. The songs may have changed, but the pleasure of singing together has never really left us.
Our forthcoming concert offers a particularly special opportunity to celebrate that enduring joy, as we welcome the Choir of St Michael’s Catholic Grammar School to join FCC in making music together.
With St Michael’s just across the road from our rehearsal and concert venue, the partnership feels wonderfully natural. Several members of our upper voice sections have been visiting the school to join in with the girls’ choir rehearsals. It’s been a delightful opportunity to share our love of singing and experience the energy and enthusiasm that a younger generation brings to choral music.
These visits have prompted some of our members to look back on their own school singing experiences – and what wonderful memories have emerged!
Claudia remembers attending Latymer Grammar, with its exceptional music department. Her route into the chamber choir was unexpected: having initially missed out on a place, she was invited to step in when a soprano dropped out just before the annual music tour. This meant learning Poulenc’s Christmas Motets at very short notice! In her final year, she sang the solo in Mozart’s Laudate Dominum with choir and orchestra. Her most memorable performance took place during the tour, as part of a monastery service in the Czech Republic. Sadly, that particular performance was never recorded!
Another member remembers being inspired by hearing her mother singing in concerts. Her own schooldays brought an exciting opportunity to join other London schoolgirls in the Bach Ripieno for the opening chorus of Bach’s St Matthew Passion, performed by the Bach Choir under David Willcocks at the Royal Festival Hall. Sitting alongside the basses, she remembers almost jumping out of her seat when they launched into “Lightning and thunder”!
Chris, meanwhile, remembers an inspirational music teacher whose wonderful voice was matched by her ambition for her pupils. Every year, she involved the whole school in a performance of Handel’s Messiah. It clearly made a lasting impression: Chris has loved singing ever since.
For Jane, singing had been part of school life from the very beginning, from simple folk songs in infant school to the thrilling sound of many voices joining together in secondary school concerts. She remembers discovering the joy of being part of something bigger: creating a body of sound that she could never have achieved on her own. Years later, when Jane was working as a teacher, she returned to singing and worked her way through the grades. She received her certificate for her Grade 8 Distinction on the school stage in front of her applauding students.
Joining the St Michael’s girls for rehearsals has brought back memories of her own school choir: hurried lunchtime arrivals, whispered conversations, missing music and the patient work of bringing all the voices together. She remembers the excitement of performing major works such as Verdi’s Requiem and Elgar’s Dream of Gerontius.
There is something uniquely uplifting about voices of different ages coming together. Those of us who have been singing for many years can remember the excitement of discovering music at school, while our younger fellow singers are making memories of their own.
Jane hopes that the girls of St Michael’s will discover just how wonderful the combined sound of their voices with FCC can be, and how proud they will feel when their families are listening in the audience. Perhaps the experience will stay with them and encourage them to keep singing – and maybe even to join a choir themselves in later life.
After all, singing is about much more than the notes on the page. It’s about friendship, belonging, shared endeavour and the feeling of being part of something bigger than ourselves.
We are delighted to be sharing this special concert with the Choir of St Michael’s Catholic Grammar School, and look forward to an occasion filled with music, memories and the joy of singing together across the generations.
We hope you’ll join us!