Saturday, 8th June 2024

Over 80 singers gathered to enjoy a day of singing led by Matthew Owens the Music Director for 2024 -2025. Although some had sung with Cumbria Singers during 2023-24 season, but others were either new to singing choral music or members of other choirs. Matthew introduced us to techniques to loosen our vocal chords and enable us to breathe well, annunciate consonants and sing with poise and confidence. The vocal exercises were accompanied by movements with our arms and hands to help our bodies relax and engage with the rhythms and sounds that our voices were producing.

Singers ‘warming up’.
*Singers ‘warming up’. *

After this extended warm up session, we focused on the pieces that had been selected for the workshop. These included: Parry’s I was glad ; Brahms’ Geistliches Lied ; Mozart’s Ave verum corpus ; Haydn’s Insanae et vanae curae ; Elgar’s The spirit of the Lord is upon me (Prologue to The Apostles); and Vaughan Williams Antiphon (from the Five Mystical Songs ). At the end of the afternoon people arrived to ‘Come and Listen’. The audience, of about 15 people, enjoyed a demonstration of the vocal exercises that we had learnt during the day (even the children joined in!) and a performance of most of the ‘Come and Sing’ programme.
Participants in the ‘Come and Sing’ day were invited to provide feedback on their experience of singing with our new conductor.

Matthew Owens demonstrating vocal exercises with hand actions.
*Matthew Owens demonstrating vocal exercises with hand actions *

They told us that they particularly enjoyed: • Focusing on finding notes; intervals, tone quality; self expression; building drama; pronounciation;- so many things to mention! All positive and very much looking forward to rehearsals. • Matthew’s enthusiasm + all the incredibly helpful tips– will definitely improve my singing. • Meeting new altos (as well as ones I already know) • All of it- singing the Parry and Mozart again and learning the others • The vocal exercises were very interesting and useful. • Thoroughness of teaching • Clarity of instruction • The variety of pieces • The choice of music • The first hour of warming up was brilliant. • Matthew’s energy, provision and vocal exercises • Great venue: easy to get to ,park, get food etc.
• The conductor’s practical emphasis on singing technique, and his light-hearted anecdotes to liven things up. • Meeting a nice group of people And a day later: ‘I was absolutely exhausted after yesterday, which according to Matthew, means I have worked hard and therefore the day was successful! It really was challenging, empowering and fun, focusing on different aspects of performance, eg conveying the meaning and telling the story. I loved the games with actions…looking forward to seeing them on the website. ‘