Weekly Updates

Next rehearsal is Tue 3 June 2025 at St Andrew’s Psalter Lane Church 7-9pm

We will rehearse Creation. If you missed last week’s rehearsal, you will still be able to sing in the concert as long as you attend two of the final three rehearsals, ie 20 and 27 May and 3 June.

Please return your English Anthems – and do try your best to rub out the marks you made so that Alan and Rosemary and their rubbing out team don’t have to meet more than once to get it all done before the scores are returned. Don’t forget that any fines charged to the Chorus for the late return of hire scores will be passed on to the members concerned. notes, recordings and rehearsal tracks for Haydn’s Creation are at Members Area / Rehearsals / Prepare the Music.

• For buses to St Andrew’s, see https://www.travelsouthyorkshire.com/.
• Street parking BUT NOT CHERRY TREE DRIVE! Take bikes into the foyer.
• Car parking spaces available by arrangement only
• Toilets at front of church, through doors either side, follow signs. Accessible loo in foyer.
• All members welcome to The Stag after rehearsal, only a short walk from St Andrew’s.
• Many thanks for your consideration regarding mobile ‘phone interruptions and distractions. Please nudge the person next to you if they get out their mobile during the rehearsal; it’s okay in emergencies of course but please leave the room.

Revised rehearsal schedule: http://www.dariusbattiwalla.com/currentschedule.pdf)

Arrangements for the Creation concert

• Venue is City Hall, Sheffield. We have a lot of new members who may not have sung in the City Hall before so please help anyone who looks lost. New members, do ask for directions if you need to, or arrange to meet up with a colleague who can show you where to go – it’s quite a labyrinth backstage! The Concert Arrangements website page has more detailed instructions for finding your way around.
• Public transport – see https://www.travelsouthyorkshire.com/
• Parking in town: Public car parks and street parking. https://www.sheffield.gov.uk/parking/city-centre-car-parking
• Programme: Haydn Creation
• Entry and registration: Please enter via the main front entrance to the City Hall on Barker’s Pool. There will be sign-in sheets and wrist bands in the foyer; please wear the wrist band at all times. If you leave the building you will need to sign out and back in again on the same sheets, which will be moved to the production corridor (through two sets of double doors from the Stage Door).
• Start time: 11am. Please be in your places by 10.50am so we can do a bit of jiggling to ensure sight lines are good.
• Seating: Seating plans will be available on the day. Please find a place within your voice part area, with taller people to the back and sides.
• Dress code – concert dress, all black, no sashes and no jackets
• Toilets – in the basement corridors and in DR4; disabled toilets near the production corridor.
• Dressing rooms: North and South Halls in the basement. Those with mobility issues may use DR4 which is adjacent to the stage left entrance.
• Music– in SPC black folders.
• Concert programmes – will be available in the foyer at sign-in, on a CASH ONLY basis (via an honesty box). For card payments you’ll need to buy programmes from any of the bars.
• Stage etiquette
• No after-shave/perfume to avoid breathing problems, especially for those with allergies.
• Please drift on stage neatly and quietly in your own time, and be in your place by 15.55 at the very latest. It’s perfectly acceptable to cross from stage left to right (or vice versa) in front of the organ to reach your seat.
• Feel free to listen to the pre-concert talk at 3pm from the stage – but please use the organ seats NOT the choir risers (because of the noise the steps make).
• Refreshments: please bring your own drinks, bottled water only on stage and only during the rehearsal – NO drinks are allowed on stage during the performance. Please take care not to drop anything – water bottles in particular – during the rehearsal as it is extremely difficult for the technical staff to retrieve items from beneath the risers. If you take packed food please eat it in the dressing room and leave no trace.
• Health and safety information:

• Do not attend if you have symptoms of Covid, flu, a heavy cold or uncontrollable cough
• Please take your own drinks in unbreakable vessels; store and carry hot drinks safely
• Keep belongings out of thoroughfares
• Take care when using stairs and steps
• Evacuation instructions: In the event of an emergency, follow the directions of marshals and leave in an orderly fashion. Assemble in Barker’s Pool (fire) or Devonshire Green (bomb). Do not try to retrieve belongings.

Jim Monach’s funeral

• The funeral will be on Friday, 27th June, at 11.30 or 12.00 (time to be confirmed) at Upper Chapel, and afterwards at Crookes Working Men’s club. Dress code is “bright”, especially purple as this was Jim’s favourite colour. We will be singing from Faure, Mozart. Rachmaninov and Rutter. Rehearsal to be arranged in due course.
• There will be a show of hands at rehearsal on Tuesday so Jim’s family can work out where to put the singers. Firm commitments will be collected on a sign-up sheet.
• Jim’s wife Jane has asked (a) whether any Chorus members would submit memories of Jim’s time with the Chorus and (b) whether anyone would be prepared to read their contribution, and those of others, as part of the memorial service.

Music left in the Upper Chapel

Four booklets were left in the Chapel – Toward the Unknown Region, Faire is the Heaven, Blest Pair of Sirens and I was glad. If these were your copies please make arrangements to collect them from the Upper Chapel, from the caretaker Patrick Tel 0114 272 8174, Mobile: 07808 064 693.

Chorus dress – replacement for sashes

• The original survey about sashes for altos and sopranos had more responses in favour of either retaining the sashes or replacing them with something else, than for wearing just black tops and skirts/trousers. In addition, audience feedback, though limited, plus the glowing review of our concert in Edinburgh, mentioned the gold sashes as a distinctive feature that makes SPC stand out among all the many choirs which wear all black. The committee therefore agreed to replace the sashes with gold brooches worn on the left (altos) or right (sopranos).
• Boo Spurgeon very kindly offered to make brooches using the sashes themselves, to maintain the distinctive gold colour, to save money and to avoid wasting the gold fabric. The brief survey Boo recently conducted about the three types of brooch she had made, showed that, though there were people who didn’t want a brooch at all, there were more people who did prefer one or other of them.
• Boo is therefore asking for members to contribute their sashes by taking them to rehearsal, so that she can make a brooch for every alto and soprano. Boo is also asking for volunteers who may be able to help her make the brooches. She has already cut out enough sashes to make 50 brooches but will need help in order to have the brooches ready for the Christmas concert, which is the aim.
• If you think you can help then see Boo at rehearsal – and donate your sash to Boo for the brooch making team. Many thanks.

Bochum exhibition from 21 July, Central Library main reading room

• Many thanks to Graham and Louise Dawson, Penny Webster, Janet Hoyle and Hilary Olsen, who have all kindly supplied material and photos for the Bochum exhibition being organised by the City Council. It means that the Chorus involvement with Sheffield’s twin city should feature strongly in the exhibition.
• The exhibition will be held in the main reading room on the ground floor of the Central Library from 21 July 2025, and will run for four weeks. Do try to see it if you can!

Chris Wiltshire piano fund-raiser 12 and 13 July 2025

Chris Wiltshire’s next fund-raising effort will be on July 12th and 13th when he will be joined by Jonathan Lazell to play ALL of Schubert’s Piano Duets. Among many famous composers who wrote duets (Beethoven, Brahms, Dvorak …), Schubert led the way with over fifty Marches, Polonaises, Rondos, Variations and superb Sonatas. Chris is the widow of ex-member Pat, who sang with the second sopranos for many years, and he and Jonathan are aiming to beat the £3,000 which was raised for Alzheimer’s Research last year.  The two-day event will take place at Chris’s home – further information next week.

Volunteers to sing with CBSO Chorus in France and Monaco

• The CBSO Chorus are going on tour in July, and are looking for additional singers to join them. They are particularly looking for tenors and basses, but Sopranos and Altos can register interest as well.
• The work is Paul McCartney’s Liverpool Oratorio with Orchestre Philharmonique De Monte-Carlo, conducted by Kazuki Yamada. The first performance will be at the Roman Theatre of Orange as part of the Chorégies d’Orange festival in Orange, France; and the second performance will take place at the Grimaldi Forum, Monaco.
• Rehearsals will be at the CBSO Centre, Birmingham on Saturday 21 June 2025 (10:30 – 13:00 and 14:00 – 16:30) AND Sunday 22 June 2025 (14:30 – 17:00 and 18:00 – 20:30)
• Tuesday 22 July 2025 – London Heathrow > Marseille Provence Airport, Dep. 18.00 Arr. 21.00 British Airways
• Monday 28 July 2025 – Nice-Cote d’Azur Airport > London Heathrow, Dep. 14.10 Arr. 15.20, British Airways
• Coach travel from Birmingham to London Heathrow will be provided but volunteers are also welcome to make their own way to Heathrow – and indeed to make their own way to France.
• A twin hotel room, shared with another member of the chorus, will be provided, along with breakfast in the following locations: Night 1 – Avignon, Nights 2 – 5 – Orange, Night 6 – Nice
• There is a cost of £650 per member for those travelling with the CBSO Chorus. This includes flights, coach transfers, accommodation (shared twin room) and breakfast at the hotel.
• If you decide to make your own journey to France and wish to stay in the hotel with the main group in a twin room, there will be no fee to pay to CBSO.
• If you are interested please contact Alexandra Parker, Chorus Manager, 0121 616 6509 or 07528 752 873 or by email at . All arrangements will be between individual volunteers and the CBSO Chorus.
• Please note that, as was discovered last year, an initial positive response from the CBSO is no guarantee of a final place, as the number of volunteers they will end up needing depends on the numbers of their Chorus who drop out. music

Chatsworth sing

Thank you to those who have signed up to sing. We could still do with a few tenors!!! The music will be available soon. Information, including a list of the music and rehearsal dates (at st Andrews on the two Tuesdays before the event) , is on our website at Members Area / Electives.

Rehearsal schedule

Full schedule is on Darius’s website at http://www.dariusbattiwalla.com/currentschedule.pdf, there’s also a link from the members area of the Chorus website (in Rehearsals). See also Diary dates (below and Chorus website at Members Area / Diary dates)