Bangor September 10-12th 2016
Once again we has a marvellous, albeit very different weekend in Wales. The weather was amazing - bright sunshine throughout - which meant we could have al fresco lunches outside in the sunny courtyard and a lovely late afternoon walk on the Saturday.
This was always intended as a rehearsal weekend which, in the event, was just as well! We had only recently received the news that Jane, our musical director, is unavailable until early 2017. She herself had suggested that Hannah, one of our Ladies, should stand in for her. So we were very glad that we had a whole gig-free weekend in which to practise! We were all very tentative at first as it felt very different, but Hannah was amazing and soon got us all sorted and working well together.
It was all quite intensive but excellent as a bonding exercise! However there were some lighter moments too. Saturday evening was a more relaxed session with everyone bringing some tunes to the table and there was even a short lesson in how to dance a French Bouree – with appropriate musical accompaniment! Hannah had done a lot of work on an improved image for the Ladies as a whole, so there was a lot of discussion about what we might wear to future concerts, although we did decide that possibly we were a little too mature to be able to carry off the Burlesque look!!
Sunday afternoon, after we had been through all the repertoire to Hannah’s satisfaction, we let our hair down a bit and played musical chairs. We each left our music on our stands, changed seats and went and played a different part, just for fun. But it was actually very illuminating. You suddenly realise what the other parts are doing - and although we do all listen to each other when we are playing it isn’t possible to hear the other parts in any great detail.
So another very successful weekend – and the new outfits will appear at Colwall in October! In the meantime all our thoughts are with Jane and we wish her a speedy recovery.
