To all playing friends and singers

Musique Cordiale in Kent again:
Handel, Dixit Dominus for the choir & Vivaldi, Four Seasons for string players
– and both for our audience in Faversham
(Concert tickets available soon online and by phone: Box Office opens HERE 6 November 2021)

We are organising a weekend of singing and playing with our favourite conductor Graham Ross, and lots of Jonathan’s cooking (plus some familiar liquid refreshment – rosé, red or Kent brew!)

Friday 3rd and Saturday 4th December 2021
Newnham & Faversham    in Kent 

Join us to sing Dixit! There will be just one work for the choir – Handel’s Dixit Dominus, accompanied by a small but exclusive Musique-Cordiale string ensemble. The first half of the concert will be a repeat of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons with Emma Purslow, whom many of you will remember from the wonderful final concert in Doddington Place Gardens this summer.

Pippa and Graham know many of you “know” Dixit Dominus, and may well have sung it often (though many of you have not (yet) So here’s is your chance. It is DIFFICULT (  see below).  It is a long time since we sang it at  Musique-Corediale (in Aups with Tom Seligman). Therefore, please please learn it before you come – it is not just the opening Dixit….lots of notes, some quite virtuoso, particularly with Graham’s tempi!  He will be using the Bärenreiter Edition, but if you don’t have this one, it doesn’t matter, as long as you learn the notes – (or in my case) the words, which seem to go so fast!

IF any of you have any children, or grandchildren, who are keen singers with good voices, then please encourage them, as it will be a wonderful opportunity for them, but also it would be great to have some younger voices joining. Soloist roles for Dixit will be taken by young singers, some of whom you will already have heard.  Graham hopes to bring some members of his choir as well. (We probably can’t expect may of our non-UK-based) singers to rejoin us quite yet though it would be lovely if some of you can.

There is always a risk of a resurgence of Covid-19. Most of you – and most of our audience – will be fully vaccinated, with boosters by then too, perhaps. But we will be very careful in indoor spaces, as before (we cannot really do THIS out of doors in December!) If things get worrying, we would, of course, have to cancel, even at the last moment. But we think it’s worth going ahead now: we aim to maintain some traditions and people need to sing and play if it’s viable.

JOIN & SING: To join this choir, please book by 1 November & pay by Nov 6th.
Early Bird discount: book & pay by 24 October.
Discounts for students and Kent locals.
See choir enrolment form for details

UPDATE:    Dixit is admittedly rather difficult; so we have arranged an optional extra choir pre-rehearsal 3-6 PM on Saturday 13 November with Rebecca Taylor in London – for anyone who is available and eager (or anxious). Details here & by email and WhatsApp soon. AND, even if you can’t come on 3/4 Dec, you’ll be most welcome on 13 Nov – or the other way round!
  We’ve also decided to have rehearsals and meals in Newnham on Friday 3 Dec in a warmer-than-previous mix of the (heated cosier) hall adjacent to the church (and pub) – with a free mini-concert in Newnham church – before supper for the choir in the hall. And, more important, the Saturday concert will be in the acoustic and beautiful but MUCH WARMER Faversham Assembly Rooms rather than in the chilly church of your past recollections (all with catering and loos en-suite!). This means that we are aiming for a smaller but notably warmer and contented audience and ensemble!

Accommodation: This time we are asking you to make your own arrangements. Options include a new Premier Inn just open in Faversham, an easy walk from the station and with parking, a bar and opposite a large Aldi! It will be new and clean with comfortable beds. There are alternatives including other hotels at various prices plus shared B&Bs (though no longer some of your favorites). We will help to guide you towards something that would suit you, once you enroll.
But, for everything, Please BOOK EARLY!
(Also, it would help us to plan if you could let us know ASAP if you can join the choir this time).