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'Death and Resurrection': Composers Anniversary Concert 2024 Programme by University of Surrey Chamber Choir

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University Choir Tech Run Before the Concert

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Concert management of Ollie’s recital seemed fairly simple on paper, however, the amount of communication work that I have done through the preparation process of the concert management is probably beyond a regular recital. It involved a lot of communication with the concert management team, the Tonmeister and the performer on the arrangement on the day.

Ollie sent over the details of his recital as soon as Shiv sent out the reminder email. In his email, he explained his extensive drumkit set-up and kindly provided us with the programme of his recital and pictures of the drum set-up. He also specified to the Tonmeister students the technical set-up of an SPD-SX that will provide feedback to his earphones rather than onstage monitoring. He also included a few questions in his email. He asked if he could drop the kit the day before so that he could save some time in setting up on the day and if he could provide some programme notes on the programme. Because of the enormous of details and questions awaiting replies, I summarized all the information that he provided in the document and made a list of questions that I would need to direct to the right person to answer. Regarding his question on access and programme notes, I discussed them with Shiv in person on the issue and Shiv later responded. I’ve also asked Ollie to check whether my summary of his set-up is accurate to make sure we are on the same page.

He later sent me and the rest of the concert management team a separate email about the duration it might take him to receive a recording from the Tonmeister and if we could help with video recordings of the recital. I briefly replied to his question about recording and promised him that I would confirm with him after checking with Jacob Spence, the Tonmeister student on duty that day on his enquiries. I also told him that the management team could help with video recording if he was concerned. But I also suggested that Jon, the technician in Pats will be streaming the performance during the day and he would be able to give a YouTube link to his performance to make sure we don't take too much work that is out of our ability. I updated Ollie the day soon after when I had all the responses, telling him Jacob also confirmed that he could provide the recording on Thursday after the recital. I also checked with him if he had anything that needed to follow up on or book from the stores.

Monday before the recital, Ollie provided me with some more details of the set-up (the cymbal set-up picture) and asked me if he could park at the Pats driveway on the day. Thereby, I ran to Jon and asked him to see if he could reserve a parking slot for Ollie and replied straight after when Jon confirmed. After I had gathered all the information the day before the recital, I sent out a link to the document with all the details to all the parties who were involved in the recital and reminded the management that they would need to wear black and they have to arrive early around 9 am as Ollie intended to arrive earlier than our normal call time.

On the day, I arrived 10 minutes before the call time making sure that Ollie could access the studio for set up. Theo, Tymur and I don’t have much to do on our concert management during Ollie’s tech, it is mainly for the Tonmeister student to test their 23-channel set-up for the recording, the backing track and whether they can give feedback to Ollie through his earphone. Thereby, Theo, Tymur and I helped them it setting the wires. In the meantime, I also make sure that the seating area and the green room are neat. Ollie at the end got a good amount of time (more than an hour) for his tech.

Before the concert began, I allocated work for Theo and Tymur after we folded the programme. I asked Theo to be at the front door around 5 minutes before the door opened to stop people from coming in before 1 pm (when the tech ended) and I asked Tymur to be at the green room to take care of the door during the concert. I was responsible for filling out the programme and declaration form and timing the performance. Tymur asked me if he could watch the concert as he was impressed with the stunning tech rehearsal that Ollie did. I agree that it is not fair to him to miss the performance, thereby, I allowed him to stay in the audience during the performance but asked him to be at the door before the last item so that he could open the door at the green room for Ollie at the end. The concert went smoothly with a massive round of applause.

Throughout the entire concert management, I think I handled the event in an organized manner, every enquiry from the performer was responded and the arrangement of the tech and the recital went smoothly and under control.

When I thought everything went perfectly fine, I received an email from Ollie a month after the recital about the recording that Jacob promised to give him the Thursday after the concert. He claimed that he could not contact Jacob at all, even for the raw recording that had not been edited. I tried to email Jacob but he didn’t respond. I happened to meet Jacob at the TV studio that week and he told me that he was very overwhelmed with his coursework and he promised he would send it to Ollie as soon as possible. I updated Ollie on the situation and he appreciated that I did everything I could to chase the recording up. However, Ollie had not received any recording from Jacob when I saw him after Easter. Ollie told me that he would handle it and see whether there were other ways to sort that out. I think this part is the little flaw of my concert management as in the end, Ollie didn’t receive the recording but I did what I could have done by texting, emailing and even talking to Jacob face to face asking for the recording. I feel bad for Ollie about the fake promise but at the same time that is not under my control.

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Just to make sure the seating area is cleaning and without hazard of tripping 

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Making the Green Room neat and tidy and you will find there is actually more space than you thought in this room:) 

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Date: 6th March, 2024

Time: 1:10 pm

Venue: Pats Studio One

Programme:

1. Come Scoglio from Così fan tutte (1789) by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)

2. Je dis que rien ne m’épouvante from Carmen (1875) by Georges Bizet (1838-1875)

3. Why Do I Love (1937) by Cecil Armstrong Gibbs (1889-1960)

Being unsatisfied with my performance on my assessment last semester, I decided to perform the programme again in a lunchtime recital. As the programme is about women's faithfulness, I have opted to perform on the week of International Women's Day as an early celebration. The goal of this performance is to improve from the previous recital with the feedback I've received from last semester and most importantly a motivation for myself, improving myself that I am capable of excelling in these pieces. I am satisfied with my performance in this recital but to fully master these pieces is a long way to go.

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University of Surrey Department of Music and Media

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The Lunchtime Recital | 6th March 2024 | University of Surrey

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Final-year Individual Project Concert: Schopenhauer in Wagner's Operas and Songs: Pessimism and Love paving the route to Redemption, Transfiguration and Compassion 

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Final-year Individual Project Concert: Schopenhauer in Wagner's Operas and Songs: Pessimism and Love paving the route to Redemption, Transfiguration and Compassion 

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Date: 13th May, 2024

Time: 12nn

Venue: Pats Studio One

Programme Notes: attached via the link

Supervised by Dr. Jeremy Barham

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Brown Vintage Group Project Presentation (21 x 14.85 cm) (3)

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Richard Wagner, Wesendonck Lieder, WWV 91 (1857-58)- Schmerzen

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Richard Wagner, Wesendock Lieder WWV91 (1857-58)- Der Engel

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Richard Wagner- Dissertation- Der Engel 

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Chamber Music Competition- Schumann Duets 

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Chamber Music Competition- Schumann Duets 

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Date: 24th April, 2024

Time: 1:10 pm

Veune: Pats Studio One

Programme:

Ich denke dein, Op. 78, No. 3

Liebhabers Ständchen, Op.34, No.2

Soprano: Michelle Wong

Tenor: Toby Loeffen-Ames

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with the mics set up as well, how amazing that is! 

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Snapshot of Ich denke dein, Op.78, No.3

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Date: 21st February, 2024

Time: 10-2pm

Venue: Pats Studio One

Performer: Ollie Woods, Drums

Concert Management Planning and Summary of work:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1MJ_KdeF5wISD7kh3je1FBDd3d_FG1V2TsbV5u4ZPlrQ/edit?usp=sharing

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URC Concert: Peter Cornelius - Liebesprobe 

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URC Concert: Peter Cornelius - Liebesprobe 

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Soprano: Michelle Wong

Baritone: Toby Loeffen-Ames

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URC Concert: Peter Cornelius Ein Wort der Liebe 

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URC Concert: Peter Cornelius Ein Wort der Liebe 

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Soprano: Michelle Wong

Baritone: Toby Loeffen-Ames

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Tenor 1:

Frey Turner

Michelle Wong

Tenor 2:

Jonathan Shaw

Bass 1:

Toby Loeffen-Ames

Bass 2 :

William Brooke

Theo Hoskin

Alex Sermon

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Snapshot of Liebhabers Ständchen Op.34 No.2

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URC Concert: Mahler Resurrection Chorus from Symphony No. 2 

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URC Concert: Mahler Resurrection Chorus from Symphony No. 2 

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Soloist

Soprano: Kirsten Buniak

Mezzo-Soprano: Michelle Wong

Chorus: University of Surrey Chamber Choir

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URC post-concert picture

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Last Minute Revision on the Music before the concert

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University Choir post-concert picture

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Date: 11th February, 2024

Time: 3pm

Venue: United Reformed Church, Guildford

Programme: 'O Rest in the Lord' from Elijah By Felix Mendelssohn

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Group Picture after the concert: say Joyce Dixey competition! 

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Date: 3rd June, 2024

Time: 1:10 pm

Venue: Pats Studio One

Programme: Amicus I By Nina Peters

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Making sure the Green Room is tidy and not too scary 

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Rachel's interaction with the fabulous composer Dr. Tom Armstrong at the tech rehearsal

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To make sure the audience does not lose their hearing after the performance with constant loud music, I've asked Shiv to get some ear plucks and the programme is ready to go!

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Programme and declaration that I've completed during the performance 

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Chamber Choir at the Lunch-time recital in Pats Studio One 

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Chamber Choir Lunch-time Recital Recording at Pats Studio One, 1st May, 2024 

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My mum's first mission after her 20+ hours flight is to watch the Chamber Choir's lunch-time concert :) Please trust me that is my mum, not my sister...... feat. Toby Loeffen-Ames 

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Alexander Chance and Toby Carr at the Wigmore Hall

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Compared with Ollie’s recital, our guest recital has much less to do in terms of concert management as the concert is relatively straightforward and there is not much preparation or planning that we needed to do as well as booking equipment from the store. Thereby, Amelia and I formed a good team in taking care of the guest’s needs during her time here and making sure the audience had a nice space without trash everywhere to enjoy the concert and the arrangement at the concert was smooth and organized.

Amelia and I were ready at Studio One around 10:45 am as Shiv indicated in his email with a nice formal black outfit. Rachel arrived slightly later she estimated due to the train delay, thereby, our duty before she arrives is to make sure that the performing space is ready to use. We vaguely set up the piano to a concert setting, cleared up the green room and made sure the seating was clean without any programmes from previous concerts.

When Rachel arrived, I took the imitative to introduce myself and Amelia to her as the concert management team and asked if she would like us to help with anything. Rachel suggested that she might want to slightly angle the piano so that the audience could see her touch on the piano, thereby Amelia and I moved the piano to a position that Rachel thought was the most favourable. She also claimed that she has a page-turning pedal that she will need to use during the performance. Being considerate that it would ruin the floor at Studio One, she asked if we could find her a mat for the pedal and we found a small mat for her in the green room advised by one of the Tonmeister students. When Rachel was doing her tech rehearsal, we also adjusted the lighting that was comfortable for her when she was playing and see whether there was anything we might adjust. We also folded the programme whilst admiring Rachel’s splendid playing.

Before the concert began, I asked Amelia to stay at the door to stop people from rushing into the studio before the tech ended (At 1:00 pm) but she allowed the audience to come in several minutes earlier and caught me by surprise but nothing serious happens as Rachel was having her break time by then already. None of us stayed in the green room during the performance as the concert only involved one player and she would not leave the stage during the performance. Thereby, the two of us opt to stay in the audience to watch Rachel’s recital. A tiny detail that could be done better is that we can have one of us in the green room before the final item so that we can open the door for Rachel on the other side of the green room. However, I was uncertain whether the other door of the greenhouse at the lower foyer was unlocked. I thought the wise decision at that point was to stay in the audience and open the door for Rachel when she left the stage rather than rushing to the green room door at the final item and finding that the door was locked and locking myself outside the studio and it is rather rude walking in and out during the performance. Thereby, I secretly went to the door when Rachel left the stage. Otherwise, the overall recital went well.

Rachel was impressed with the concert management team for our help and we’ve made sure that she packed everything that she brought there before she left. Like her pedal that was left on the floor and her iPad that she left on the piano with a protective colour.

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Score Excerpt of Vivaldi's Credo- I: Credo in unum Deum 

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Score excerpt of Vivaldi's Credo- IV. Et resurrexit 

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Date: 28th February, 2024

Time : 1:10 pm

Venue: PATs Studio One

Performer: Claire Fedoruk, Soprano

Ian Pace, Piano

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Date: 14th April, 2024

Time: 3:00 pm

Venue: Wigmore Hall

Performer: Alexander Chance, Countertenor

Toby Carr, Lute

Programme: https://media.wigmore-hall.org.uk/documents/Programme_14_April_2024_300pm_FULL.pdf

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Date: 8th May, 2024

Time: 11-2pm

Venue: Pats Studio One

Performer: Rachel Fryer, Piano

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The concert featured a young countertenor, Alexander Chance, the first countertenor who won the international Handel Singing Competition in 2022[1]and the son of a world-famous British countertenor Michael Chance[2]. Alexander is at the start of his professional singing career but he seems to have become the rival of his father’s reputation in critics’ eyes.[3] This concert is his Wigmore Hall recital debut which presented early music that he recorded as an album with Toby Carr last year in July. Toby Carr is a well-known lutenist and guitarist who is passionate about chamber music and collaboration with singers, like Helen Charlston and Emma Kirkby.[4] He is also a professor at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, where is responsible for performance, chamber music and guitar ensemble coaching. This concert presented a series of early music from British composers John Dowland, John Danyel, Thomas Ford, Thomas Campion, Robert Johnson and Henry Purcell that presented the melancholias embedded in early British Music. In this section, I intend to comment on elements of the concert that can be improved and reminded me to be aware of in my own performance practice.

Let’s start with the performance on the day, the concert started with a Toby’s Lute solo on Dowland’s Preludium, which I think is a good opener for the concert to drive the audience into the sonic world they are trying to present throughout the hour. The piece flows smoothly with a good balance between the lower register and the melody, his disciplined and controlled playing enabled him to express the music fully and to highlight the important lines in the inner parts. His playing reminds me that being flexible and having good planning on our music is important for a musician's performance practice. I always think that being loud and well-projected is a nice practice growing up. Especially as a singer, we’ve got words to deliver and the audience needs to know what we are singing about, that makes my voice gradually bigger in a forceful way and slightly out of control as all I do is sing loudly. However, I have recently realised that being loud and sound might be a barrier to delivering emotions and the beauty of music is not always about how loud you can sing (Or maybe most of the time). Making music is not only about producing sounds, but producing sounds in a controlled manner to shape the music. For example, when I was practising Schubert’s Erlking for my recital this semester, I used to sing the Erlking part fearfully loud, however, it might sound scary due to the volume I projected but it is not really what the piece is aiming for. After discussing that with my singing teacher Jennifer, we’ve agreed that putting the Erlking character with an incredibly soft voice would make the character more spooky and creepy it worked really well at the recital.

Alexander is on the stage whilst Toby is playing his solo piece at the start. He acknowledges the music as if he is part of it, even though he is not singing at all. He reminds me of an important thing as a performer- you have to be in the music as long as you are on the stage even though you are not playing or singing as you are part of the ensemble. Thereby, I have adopted that spirit in my performance on Handel’s 'Flammende Rose' this semester, there are a lot of instrumental sections that I don’t have to sing. So, I planned beforehand on what to do emotionally in these sections whilst I was practising the piece. As the piece is about celebrating God’s creation and rose in the garden. I pretended that I was having a good time with flowers surrounding me in my mind and moved with the music whilst looking at Angie and Maureen playing their part. Alexander showed more interaction in ‘Flow my tears’, he looked at Toby and communicated with him through eye contact. His hand posture also delivered more on his expression. He had a score to look at but he used it very effectively and didn’t lose his communication with the audience. I adopted the way he used the score whilst singing the Schuman duets with Toby Loeffen-Ames at the Chamber Music Competition, we can only peek at the score at certain moments whilst we are not singing, and we look up a lot to express emotions through our eyes and body language to the audience. On top of that, we chose not to use stands but folders that professional choristers usually use, which reduced the barrier between the communication between us and the audience.

It is tricky to balance with a lute as it is a relatively quiet instrument, but Alexander’s voice sat perfectly on top of the lute accompaniment as what they have presented in Dowland’s ‘In Darkness Let Me Dwell’. There are moments like John Danyel’s ‘Have All Our Passions’ where the voice slightly drowned out the lute in the higher register but Alexander pulled it off quite well. This problem might be more significant in Thomas Ford’s ‘Faire, sweet, cruel’ where the voice and lute are responding to each other melodically. Although the line connected really well through their communication, the overpowering voice seems to be a bit incoherent with the lute which hinders the communication. If Alexander presented it gentler, it might enhance the sweetness in the expression as well. In ‘In Darkness Let Me Dwell’, I noticed that Toby played louder with the voice, but was more contented when he was playing the solo, this sense of flexibility enhances the sonic sensation delivered to the audience.

It is always difficult when it comes to interpreting early music. Sometimes, if we are playing the flourishing melodic line too in time, it might sound fractionally robotic. In the sequential passage in John Danyel’s Pavan, Toby is really conscious of playing all the notes and he is nervous about that, which presents the robotic side of his playing. That reminds me of my practice in Purcell’s ‘If Music Be the Food of Love’ when Inja commented at a workshop that I should locate the stress of the phrase and be carefree on the rest of the line, it helped me with my phrasing and it makes the music flow smoothly. I think Toby probably has the same issue in the Pavan. He also seemed to be a bit tight in his playing which was caused by overtly excessive body language. Body Language to some extent is good for expression, however, excessive body movement might sometimes hinder you in your playing or singing, especially when the section consists unbearable amount of notes. I used to move a lot to present the expressive side of me, trying to persuade the audience that I was into the music. However, I later realised that being still is more effective, thereby, I have tried to reduce my movement during singing if possible. But for now, I still have a bad habit of putting of focus on one leg and lifting the other, which will hinder the support of the body and loss the support from the ground. To improve this, I practise more with a mirror to make sense I don’t lean on one side when I am singing.

Alexander’s tone is pellucid and soothing. It is very different from my normal practice as an opera singer. His change of register from head voice to chest voice in Henry Purcell’s ‘O solitude, my sweetest choice’ is very smooth and well controlled.  I have been thinking about my voice around the time about my change of register. I am fortunate enough to have a 3-octave range in my voice, with the lower register more of a tenor quality and the upper register as an operatic soprano, with the middle register slightly overlapped. There were times that I struggled to change the register and ended up sounding a bit too intentional while singing with a different register. However, from what Alexander presented in the recital, he seems to tell me that if  I am more carefree on the change of the register it will make the switch easier, although it still takes time for me to get that in practice to make it completely smooth, it has been improving since I acknowledge the problem.

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There are quite a lot of times in the concert that Alexander is slightly under the pitch which reminds me of my recent performance with some notes that are slightly under. That usually occurs when I am singing a leap or long sustained note, which was mainly caused by two problems, the singing position and the breath. If I am not careful on the leap by thinking higher before reaching the note, it usually goes under the pitch. On the other hand, if I don't plan my breathing well enough, the pitch goes under as I have a lack of breath to support the note. Alexander reminded me that I really have to solve these problems as they will affect me in the long run. For now, I have adopted a contrary motion approach in my leap singing practice. Instead of thinking of going upwards, I think of going downwards. As force works in pairs, thinking going down will provide a supporting force that interacts reversely to support the pitch and it helps to sustain better on the high notes rather than being slightly dodgy. In terms of sustaining long notes, I try to plan my breaths better and I started going to the gym recently hoping that it will increase breathing capacity so that it helps with the support.

As a singer singing whilst sitting is harder than standing as you don't have as much support to your body from your foot to your body. Alexander did an excellent by sitting at the front third of the chair so that he could get support from the ground and I think it is a good point to note for future reference or maybe even during choir practice.

Whilst we think the concert is quiet enough, Alexander winded down the concert with a short English folk music by Cecilia Harper ‘My Love Gave Me an Apple’ without accompaniment. It is a relatively short encore and some of the leaps are not well-prepared enough that soop between the leaps but it summed up the concert really well.

Reading through the programme notes as research before the concert, I found the layout of the text interesting. Rather than listing out song after song what they are about, Alexander and Toby provided a heavy historical context of the music that they presented. Starting with the background of Dowland, the association of his music with melancholy, the history of the Lute and how the instrument related to the theme. Dowland in the programme notes was treated as the central character to draw connections with the other composers' work in the programme which share similar styles. I appreciated the way they presented the connection between the composer, however, the order of content is rather incoherent with the programme. If I were them, I would structure the content in an order that resonates with the programme so that it is more reader-friendly. Even within the section about Dowland, the paragraph on ‘Flow my tears’ can come before ‘Captain Digory Piper, His Galliard’ which makes the flow of the text more connected with the programme. The content in the programme note also seemed to be biased on the background of Dowland’s music which covered nearly half of the page and some of them were hardly mentioned. They merely introduced Henry Purcell’s two songs with the ground bass and hardly mentioned anything about Robert Johnson. The programme notes looked unfinished from the reader's perspective. If I were them, being limited to writing a page length of programme notes, I would plan carefully on the section that I will need to write on, starting with the historical background, then some descriptions of each composer’s background that is correlated to the music and bring in connections between the music in the programme by thinking why am I presenting them as a set in this concert. There is also a spelling mistake in the programme which is a tad embarrassing for a high-profile concert.

All in all, I suggested that this concert was fascinating and I was pretty amazed by Alexander’s singing and Toby’s lute playing and the communication between them. Being a young artist to have achieved this high standard of singing, it is certain that Alexander has more potential to go beyond. Through this concert, he has inspired me to push myself to more in achieving my singing to his standard but in a different style.

[1]Alexander Chance, Biography, Alexander Chance’s Website (Last access on 7th June, 2024)

https://www.alexanderchance.co.uk/biography

[2]Alexander Chance, Press, Alexander Chance’s Website (Last access on 7th June, 2024)

https://www.alexanderchance.co.uk/press

[3] Hugh Kerr’s comment on Alexander Chance at The Wee Review in 2019, Alexander Chance’s Official Website (Last access on 7th June, 2024)

https://www.alexanderchance.co.uk/press#:~:text=%E2%80%9CCountertenor%20Alexander%20Chance%2C%20who%20is,to%20rival%20his%20father's%20reputation.%E2%80%9D

[4] Toby Carr, Biography, Toby Carr Official Website (Last access on 7th June, 2024)

https://www.tobycarr.co.uk/about

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This semester, Michelle pushed herself even further on her performance by tackling several massive works that singers at her age might not opt for. Agreed that taking these challenges is a bold decision, Michelle worked extraordinarily hard to encounter those pieces, hoping that would be a good preparation for her future performing career as a dramatic soprano. This semester she has performed in more than 10 University-related recitals with different programmes and she is impressed with what she has achieved at the end of her degree.

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During the pandemic and witnessing the wars around us, we often feel struggling, demotivated and hopeless, and how would that turn out if it was presented through music? This concert featured Dr. Claire Fedoruk DMA on Voice and Ian Pace on the piano, presenting 20th and 21st century vocal music that reflected Claire’s experience of performing during pandemic times, music by women and Ukrainian composers that reflect Claire’s heritage. Claire is a scholar-practitier who specialized in vocal music of the Renaissance and the 21st centuries. She is interested in the connection between scholarship and performance and its effect on musicians who practice in both sectors. Claire is an active live performer in Los Angeles as both a solos artist, recording artist and ensembles artist with Los Angeles Master Chorale and other choral groups in Los Angeles.[1] Claire is recently undertaking a sabbatical project which comprises a recital tour in the United Kingdom and this concert is one of the checkpoints of her project. She is thrilled to represent her Ukrainian heritage and share with us the work of the neurodivergent composer Sarah Walli-Huff. Ian is a well-known pianist who specialises in musical modernism and transcendental virtuosity. He is a student of the Hungarian pianist György Sándor, a student of Bartók.[2] In this section, like the previous one, intended to review elements of the concert that inspire my own practice and elements that I can remind myself to be aware of.

Claire sparked off the concert with Tim Watts's new song cycle- Five Fables. She immediately brought us to the sonic world they intended to present at this concert starting with a song that comprises extended techniques- ‘Forcast’ by singing into the piano with the sustainable pedal lowered and wobbling effects. Having the experience of singing into the piano before, I understood that grasping the level of control as what Claire achieved in the performance is not an easy task, usually, I ended up getting massive echoes or none. She did not get very close to the piano on the day but at a distance enough for her to receive certain echoes, we can tell that she is pretty experienced in using these techniques to create the hollow effect. To grasp this technique to her standard probably, it took more time for me to experiment with the piano and find a way to get the frequency with the piano right, it demonstrated Claire’s capability and virtuosity. The speech-like singing in the second piece ‘Folksong’ creates a dramatic effect, whilst the third piece- the ‘Fairytale’ caught us by surprise with its dark tonality. The fourth song ‘Fantasy’ featured its stillness and scatteredness and the cycle ended with a narration with the piece 'Farewell'.

Viewing this song cycle in general, there are some points that I think are worth reflecting on. I am very impressed with Claire’s disciplined singing throughout the song cycle, the quiet endings in ‘Forecast’, ‘Folk Song’ and ‘Fantasy’ are very well- control, especially the light but well-projected high notes at the end of  ‘Forecast’ that descend a tone and the long sustain note in decrescendo at ‘Fantasy’ has given me goosebumps. From that, I learnt the power of weightlessness in expression and its capability to bring out intimacy from Claire’s perspective. Recently, I have been working on bringing more control to my voice for rather than being extravagantly loud, I try to sing as quietly as possible. On one occasion even tried to use a Decibel meter to limit myself. I also started a practice in grading dynamics from the loudest I can sing to the quietest and I realised that having more control over volume can create more potential for expression, contrasting characters of a work like narrative or helping to build up the climax of the piece more effectively. For example, in my dissertation performance, I sang Kundry’s aria- Grausamer! Fühlst du im Herzen nur and’rer Schmerzen. That piece involves different emotions from crying and begging for help, to the narration of her curse and her experience of laughing at Christ, the hopelessness and the frantic screaming. If I had sung through the entire aria with full power, I might probably have lost my voice at the end of the piece, thereby, I planned and graded the amount of the intensity of the piece and see how much effort I had to give at the minimum in each section. That doesn’t enhance the dramatization of the piece but it also works efficiently for my voice by not giving any form of stress to my vocal cord at all. The tranquillity of ‘Chromo 2’ and ‘Chromo 3’ in the Heitor Villa-Lobos from the song cycle Miniaturas was breath-taking, I have adopted her approach in the singing high notes quietly but in a well-projected manner to my practice of Wagner’s Liebestod as especially at the final end of the with that octave leap. I found it really effective on the expression, especially that is the moment when Isolde Transfigured, the weightless give out a sense of dissolving from the piece.

I observed some of Claire's bad habits in singing which is pretty similar to mine. That's the habit of shifting the focus of my body to one leg mentioned earlier, she pointed her feet with her ankle and leaned on one side of the body. As I mentioned in the previous section, these habits are usually developed unconsciously in our practice and if we are not aware of it, we might bring that on stage as well. Having the body imbalance whilst singing might affect the support we can obtain on the ground and make our singing less effective. There was a point in ‘Fairytale’ that she glanced at the corner of her eyes which I found quite weird that I have to keep a note to avoid doing that.

In comparison with Alexander, Claire does not use the score effectively enough. At the start of  ‘Folksong’, she is quite attracted to the score which hinders her expression. The same thing happened in ‘Farewell’ while she is narrating the story, she will need to tell the story with facial expressions and body postures, however, the score-reading seems to have carried away her from the story-telling. Claire sang a lot of music that was not in English in the recital, she sang in Ukrainian which most of us don’t understand. It is a very common thing for singers to sing in different languages. It started to make me think of ways that might help connect the audience with the music more and came up with a conclusion that the only to achieve so is to connect the audience with the emotion of the piece. In my practice, I usually recite the piece, especially on those with narratives and changing characters as the prerequisite to realise the piece fully is not merely it sing out but to project the features of the characters in your singing. If there is a need for a reading score, I would put the stand slightly away from me to the extent that I can still read the score at the corner but still have space to move and project the character. Later in the recital, Claire brought out more of the story-telling aspect in Stefania Turkewich’s ‘Emigration Elegy’ with her hand posture, she covered her mouth and put more acting to her performance, which I think she grasped the message in the song very well and has effectively delivered to the audience. That is a good example of interacting with the audience despite the language barrier. It also showed the level of disruption in expression if a score is not used properly in a performance.

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Claire also tends to tilt her head to the back vertically at the high notes, it was first noticeable in Stefania Turkewich’s ‘The Assumption’ which by then does not affect her voice as much, but she did it again on the high note at ‘I Am Not Resigned to the Shutting Away of Loving Hearts in the Hard Ground’, which probably gives her a good tension on her vocal cord. In my practice, I usually tilt my head gently horizontally to make sure my head to nice and relaxed, however, if we do it in another direction it will compress our vocal cords and if the vocal cords don’t have room to vibrate or vibrate in a compressed manner, it might bring long-term damage to the vocal cord. By seeing Claire’s practice, I am more aware of how I posture myself in practice and performance and try to reduce unnecessary movement that does not help with performance.

More about the planning, I would like to comment on the phrasing and direction of a melody. The sense of direction in the melody is a bit lost at the long melody in ‘Folk Song’ at the vocal line and scattered notes from the high register to lower in ‘Fantasy’ in the piano. The same thing was noticeable in Myroslav Volynksy’s ‘Evening’ and Mykola Lysenko’s ‘The Reaper’, the legato lines in both works are not connected enough to the extent it is quite chunky. In ‘Evening’, the arpeggios are not smooth enough which affects the sonic experience of the melodic line on top (in solfège ‘s s s m f’) as well. Reviewing my practice, I realise I didn’t really spend time planning on phrasing when I first started studying a piece. I think I should adopt it now my practice rather than merely relying on recordings that are available. Studying the melody and making plans on the stress will help the music flow better and give a sense of direction despite the length of the line. Unthoughtful planning might sometimes make the piece harder, for example, in my practice on Handel’s Flammende Rose, if I don’t plan enough on the coloratura passage on where to break and how to shape the form, the music wouldn’t flow and it will not deliver the vibrancy that the music intended. The lack of direction is noticeable at the upward scale at the opening of  ‘Recurrence’ in Sarah Wallin Huff's new song cycle and the sequences in later on the piece.

Although the above brought out a lot of things that the performer might need to work on with my reflection. I think that the personal attachment presented in the concert is pretty unique and there were a lot of dazzling moments that caught my breath. All in all, it is a professional and very engaging performance.

[1] Claire Fedoruk, Biography, Los Angeles Master Chorale Website (Last Access 7th June, 2024)

https://lamasterchorale.org/artist-details/11753/claire-fedoruk

[2] Professor Ian Pace Profile, City University of London Website (Last Access 7th June, 2024)

https://www.city.ac.uk/about/people/academics/ian-pace

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Thriving activities never stop in Chamber Choir, this semester we’ve definitely hit some milestones and went beyond from last semester by doing more complex repertories at the United Reformed Church (URC) on 10th March despite having several singers leaving the choir with the time clash on the schedule. That definitely marks the peak of chamber choir during my 3 years at Surrey here and everyone in the choir has pushed themselves very hard to learn the music.

Our concert at the URC surrounded the theme of ‘Death and Resurrection’ and at the same time celebrated the anniversary of the composer. The first half of the concert features repertories that are relatively light (Other than Te Deum) with Kirsten Buniak’s organ piece on Jean Langlais’s ‘Prière’ from 24 Piéces followed by Amelie Bradley’s and Annabel Sheridan’s pellucid solo in Gabriel Fauré’s Masse Basse and two works from Holst’s in very different styles: Short Festival Te Deum and Four choral Folksongs. The second half of the concert featured work that was relatively more massive and emotionally intense. Stephanie Gaunt was on the organ as an accompanist in Fauré’s Cantique de Jean Racine and Mahler’s Second finale at the end and William Brooke played Léon Boëllmann’s ‘Introduction- choral’ from Suite Gothique. The second half was also a time for me to shine my virtuosity in singing by singing two Peter Cornelius’s love duets: Liebesprobe and Ein Wort die Liebe with Toby Loeffen-Ames, singing the tenor part of Cornelius’s Requiem Aeternam as the first tenor with the tenors and basses in the choir and also being one of the soloist in Mahler’s Second final chorus and alternating between different voice parts within the piece.

Toby and I practise the duets together at our own time to refine our singing. We offered each other constructive feedback on our singing, on how to match our voices into one by modifying some of the vowels and singing position etc. Of course, German is not our first language, thereby, we looked into the pronunciations and translation together to get the pronunciation and expression synchronized with the words. This opportunity has enabled us to familiarize ourselves with each other’s singing and how to interact and collaborate with others. It is a good preparation for us before the Chamber Music Competition later in the year. Helping out the tenor part in Cornelius’s Requiem Aeternam was a very late decision as we are not sure if there would be anyone singing the upper tenor line due to Frey’s unstable health situation. It turned out to be a nice surprise to the audience and they really liked my lower range.

The highlight of the concert was definitely the Mahler’s Second Resurrection finale. Jeremy struggled a lot whether to perform this piece due to the limited singers due to the extreme range in the parts, constant change of tempo and to get the intensity of a chorus that was originally written for a massive choir with orchestra is challenging. Being one of the top researchers of Mahler’s music, surely, Jeremy would not like to mess up with his music as well. However, being constantly persuaded by the singers and impressed by our determination to learn the piece, Jeremy decided to embark on this journey. I collaborated with Kirsten, a master's student from the maths and physics department as the soloist of the piece. My solo part was relatively more exposed and emotional, thereby, it really took me quite a lot of time to get the expression right. I practised with Kirsten on the duet section as well to make sure that I wouldn’t drown her out while still maintaining the intensity of the piece. I also alternated between the second soprano, second alto and the first tenor line for the rest of the piece. The outcome of the performance is not the best with some incoherency with the organ at the end but we all agree that the intensity and the singing at the end are plausible.

By reviewing our performance through recordings, there are definite things that we need to refine and we can tell that Jeremy is not fully satisfied with the performance, especially the first half of the concert with the unfamiliarity of the De Teum and the polyphonic texture and tricky rhythms in Holst’s ‘There was a tree’ and Song of the blacksmith’.

Passion from the singers only lasts till the URC concert, like last year around this time, the main challenge of the choir is to have committed members attending rehearsal regularly and showing up at the concerts. However, it seems to be hard to achieve as members are busy with their work at the final stage of the year. The morale of the choir has definitely been affected by the notice of Jeremy’s leaving from the University after this academic year. To cope with the situation, performances later in the year are relatively more manageable. In the lunch-time concert in Pats Studio One on 1st May, we included some of the pieces that we have done at the Holy Trinity Church and the URC concert like Eric Whitacre’s Sing Gently, Holst’s Choral folk song and Fauré’s Messe Basses with four relatively simple new repertoires: Odaline de la Martinez’s ‘Home I want to go Home’, Mátyás Seiber’s Three Hungarian Folk Songs and Gene Puerling’s arrangement of Frank Losser’s ‘More I Cannot Wish You’ and Astro Piazzolla’s ‘Libertango’. We massive improved Holst’s folk song from the previous concert by being more confident in our entries in 'There Was a Tree' and keeping a steady tempo in ‘Song of the Blacksmith’. 'Home I Want to Go to Home' is not the choir’s favourite in the set but we’ve recited the alternating patterns of 3 and 4 groupings in the performance. It worked really nicely in the performance, it is well-controlled even though Jeremy is not conducting the piece. Although we had some mistakes in between parts, we managed to pull it off at the end. ‘More I Cannot Wish You’ is a sweet and gentle piece with Phoebe Richards’s solo. Phoebe is a staff from the academic registry but she joined in to support the alto part due to lack of singers. Her delicate gratifying voice enhanced the delivery of the song despite some mistakes made. I was impressed with my lower F (F above middle C) in the piece and I had a good warm-up beforehand to make it sound. Libertango is a fun work to sing but we usually accelerate the tempo too much, it was exceptionally mad at the end of the concert but very dramatic. However, we had some feedback from the audience who are very familiar with the genre saying that we need to bring up the flavour of tango to the audience. I think it was relatively hard to explain to singers who are not that experienced with the genre how to elevate the piece but we've tried. The concert winded down with Whitacre’s Sing Gently. Before that, Jeremy gave a heartfelt speech and announced to the audience about his leaving which made some of us burst into tears. The concert closed in a rather weird atmosphere as everyone in the audience felt bad about Jeremy’s leaving and that was probably the saddest version of Sing Gently that we’ve sung.

Whilst everyone thinks that Chamber Choir will be dismissed as soon as the term ends, here is the surprise!  We are invited to sing at the Guildford Cathedral on 13th June as a coffee concert after the school term ends. The upcoming concert is similar to the concert at Studio One with a duet and organ piece added to the programme. Amelie and I are finally collaborating for the first time this academic year as a duo and we will be singing Delibes’s ‘Duo des fleurs’ in Lakmé and we are all looking forward to it.

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When it comes to the second semester, University Choir practice this semester is usually rather short-term as we usually dismiss before Easter. Unlike last semester, University Choir rehearsals are not compulsory for first-year students anymore, there is a slight variation of singers this semester but the number has luckily been maintained (with several new singers). The choir resembled on 7th February and ended soon after the concert with the University Orchestra on 16th March in Holy Trinity Church, which was about 6 weeks of rehearsal intersecting with weeks that Russell was away (Most of them are undertaken by Jeremy). The main focus of these 6 weeks was on Antonio Vivaldi’s Credo in E minor which was performed by the strings and ‘Ave maris stella’ by Edvard Grieg in a cappella.

Even though the pieces we encountered this semester are a lot more straightforward than Alexander Borodin’s 'Prince Igor' and Sergei Rachmaninoff’s 'Bogoroditse Devo' that we performed last semester, the choir thought that it was harder for them to grasp the pieces, especially on Vivaldi’s Credo. The piece was written in mostly homophonic texture intersection with occasional polyphony, the choir has to be very in time in between ourselves as it will be very obvious if we are not coherent or if there is a mistake. Synchronizing with the strings was also another challenge, as in some of the passages like the first movement Credo in unum Deum and the last movement Et resurrexit, the strings are playing very regular quavers and semi-quavers and not much of a support to the choir. The choir also felt much more exposed and insecure with having only strings accompaniments, especially during moments when the texture has thinned out to the extent of having only one voice part with the strings (which only involved about 4 singers). I think I am slightly underprepared on this piece and I felt really guilty at the tech on the day, especially since Russell was very disappointed with the tech, thereby I spent some time in between the tech and the concert to go through my line and make sure I am confident on my part. (See picture on our last-minute revision) Ave maris stella is also a tricky one for the choir as we have strong sopranos and basses, but relatively weaker tenors and altos, balancing each part is quite hard. Most of the parts had divisi during the piece as well but it went fine at the concert.

From University Choir this semester I’ve also learnt that I have to treat every opportunity that I have equally and shouldn’t be selfish to take up a lot of them at the same time. There was a recording section invitation to Chamber Choir that took place on the concert day but it was informed at a rather late notice and the agreed time was extended from what I had agreed with the sound engineer. Thereby, the recording section clashed with the tech rehearsal at the church which would last for 15 minutes. Asking among singers who are involved in both events, we have come to an agreement that will miss the tech rehearsal for the recording and thought that it might be fine as we have attended all the rehearsals. However, I soon realised the problem when I informed Russell about our potential absence from the tech due to the time clash, he was very angry and disappointed with our decision and he said to us that we needed to be there for the tech as it is not fair to the other singers who would turn up at the tech. I promised him I would sort that out and I would make sure that singers who are involved in both events would turn out. He also emailed some of the staff in the department about the issue after I managed to negotiate with the sound engineer to work the time. In this incident, I didn’t consider the singers who were involved in both events to be the core singers in University Choir and the choir wouldn’t be solid enough without them. I didn’t value enough the 15 minutes of tech rehearsal on the day which I should have done. I deeply regretted and blamed myself for my previous decision of being selfish in taking up more opportunities and making Russell disappointed. I can only overcome my guilt when I see Russell smile when he sees all of us at the tech and things seem to have resolved. My friends around me calmed me that I should not blame myself too much as it was not my fault that the engineer extended the recording section. However, I think I could have handled the situation better.

The concert at the end went very well and I am sure Russell and all of the members were very pleased with the performance. I was later informed that Russell is not conducting the University Choir from next year. I am sure the members are going to miss our time with Russell, especially the interesting warm-ups that he did with us at the rehearsal and his humorous rehearsal style but we understand his decision for not continuing and we wish him all the best.