Verse
And Chorus
For
further details on Verse And Chorus, and for a registration form,
please click on Membership
Verse
And Chorus celebrated its sixth birthday in September
2008, having been founded in 2002 to meet the needs
of young singers of secondary school age who were keen to develop
their choral skills and perform regularly at concerts and
festivals outside their school environment. Membership stands at around thirty, and comprises two sections, a junior
section for singers between
the ages of 9 and 13 and a senior section for those over 13. The
singers are spread around various different schools in and around
Harrogate and further afield.
The aim of the choir is to provide a focus, where young
people can develop their love of choral singing by rehearsing and
performing a challenging and enjoyable repertoire, giving them
sense of achievement, within a relaxed environment.
The choir meets weekly on Friday evenings during term time.
It performs regularly at concerts and festivals, directed
by David Darling and accompanied on the piano by Sarah Paynes.
In 2005,
2006 and 2007, Verse And Chorus performed in the senior category of the National Choral Festival
alongside other outstanding youth choirs at the Birmingham
Conservatoire, gaining impressive adjudicators’ reports, and at
the Harrogate Competitive Festival in 2006 and 2007 won
the coveted Choral Challenge for the best choir of the
festival. Verse And Chorus also took part in the junior category
of the 2006 National Choral Festival in the amazing Symphony Hall,
Birmingham, having qualified with exceptional adjudicators’
comments in the regional round earlier in the year, and in 2007 our younger
singers took part in the national festival in their
own right, having already achieved success at the
Harrogate Festival these past two years, with first
prizes in the primary choirs class.
We also hold regular social events.
In the past year, we have had a summer barbecue and a pizza
party, both of which were well attended and much appreciated!
Verse And Chorus
Barbecue, July 2007
Verse
and Chorus
undertook an overseas tour to Germany’s Rhineland in 2003.
Recent engagements have included concerts at the Royal Hall,
Harrogate (with the Harrogate Choral Society), Dacre Banks, Pannal, Bishop
Thornton, Birstwith, Hampsthwaite, St Mark’s Church Harrogate,
St. Peter's Church Harrogate, Killinghall, St. Cuthbert's Church,
Pateley Bridge, and the Harrogate International Centre, as well as
BBC broadcasts, private functions, charity events and weddings.
Our debut CD All Aboard! was launched at a
special evening in November 2006, which also featured the world premiere performance of a new piece
"New Songs Of Celebration" specially written for Verse
And Chorus by the internationally acclaimed composer Philip
Stopford. Our follow-up CD is just about to be
recorded, and will be available shortly.
Verse
And Chorus
has sung live on the BBC Radio 4 Daily Service and joined
with the choir and congregation of St. Robert’s Church, Pannal
to record some music for the BBC Radio 2 Sunday Half Hour
programme – both of these as a result of Emma Whiteley, a
founder member of the choir, winning the 2006 BBC Young Chorister Of
The Year award.
Another of our singers, Bill Goss, is ca member of "The
Choirboys", whose CD "The Carols
Album" was released last December. Just recently David
Paynes, who sings in his parish church choir at Pannal along with
Emma, has won through to the final of this year's BBC Radio 2
Choirboy Of The Year competition. Future engagements include
a concert at Pannal in October, a charity event at St.
Wilfrid's Church, Harrogate in December, a wedding in April 2009, and further work with the BBC.
Our
repertoire encompasses a wide range of styles and periods, and includes a number of
popular and show songs, sacred pieces, spirituals and various
traditional and new melodies. We were delighted to give the première performance of a composition
by Sarah Cleveland, one of our singers, last year, and look forward to encouraging
other young composers in the same way.
Singing together in a choir fosters confidence and team
spirit among individuals, and can provide a great amount of
satisfaction and a sense of achievement.
We aim to give at least one concert every term, which helps
raise money for local worthy causes.
Many of the singers receive individual singing lessons and
have also experienced considerable success as soloists in their
own right. Verse
And Chorus has also always provided a platform for those
singers who wish to express themselves with solo performances at
concerts, and our young singers would have the opportunity to
experience the thrill of singing solos at our concerts if they so
wish.
For
further details on Verse And Chorus, and for a registration form,
please click on Membership
Outside
Symphony Hall, Birmingham, after our performance, July 2006
David Darling
(Director)
David has been involved with choral
music from a very early age, as well as studying piano, organ and violin. Born in
Northern Ireland, he was organ scholar at Methodist College, Belfast,
before going on to Durham University. His many compositions and arrangements include a setting of
the Evening Service, numerous carols and descants, and a collection of folk
song arrangements.
His arrangement of the English folksong The Water Of Tyne was
published in 1997, and A Prayer of Saint Patrick has been
selected as a test piece at the Harrogate and York Festivals,
as well as being chosen by the Royal School of Church Music for residential courses.
David has sung as part of the
R.S.C.M. choir for the British Legion Festival of Remembrance at the
Royal Albert Hall, and his choirs have also
appeared on television and radio. He was Director of Music at
a Harrogate preparatory school for many years, and helped his school
choir
achieve the coveted Outstanding Performance Award at the
2004 and 2005 National Choral Festivals at
Symphony Hall, Birmingham. David is now in demand as a singing
and piano teacher, and organist. He teaches at Gateways
School, Harewood, and is also an adjudicator for the
Music For Youth regional festivals. Away
from music he enjoys walking and reading (when time
permits him!).
One unusual claim to fame was a mention in the
Good Housekeeping magazine some time in the not too
distant past!
Sarah Paynes
(Accompanist)
Sarah has played the piano from an early age. After obtaining her
music degree and later an M.A., she entered the business world
before making music her career. She has taught privately for
fifteen years and has worked as choir director, accompanist and
teacher. She
has been involved in many musical activities in the Harrogate area,
including the Harrogate Music Festival, local dramatic societies,
church choirs and numerous schools, and is in regular demand as an
accompanist for music examinations and concerts. Sarah also plays the violin and organ and spends a
great deal of her time, along with her husband, singing with the
successful five part a-capella group Quintessential. Unfortunately
she claims to be a member of the Cliff Richard fan club, much to the
amusement of most of her friends!
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