Here we are again in our favorite city for another long stay. This year we are arriving on August 17 after having spent five days in England at Warwick University at a choral workshop. We had four days of rehearsal and then gave a concert in Coventry cathedral. I will start off the blog with a coverage of that experience with a load of photos. We will start our coverage of Paris a few days later. Then, the second week in September we will be going to Schegginno in Italy for another choral workshop, also to be reported here. Some of you may remember we did a similar week there in 2010. It was such a success that it was offered again this year. Don't try to find Schegginno on a map of Italy. It has less than a thousand inhabitants, thus not large enough for mapdom. After that, we will be back in Paris until November 1st when we return home until next year.
We left home on August 11th and flew to Birmingham, England. We went on to Warwick University, which despite its name is closer to Coventry than to Warwick. Here are a few photos of the university.
The University has many modern, new buildings that are well maintained and well landscaped as you can see. There are in the neighborhood of 40,000 students during the school year. We stayed in very nice accommodations in the hotel the University maintains on campus.
The workshop was called THE REALLY BIG CHORUS.
Our daily activities for three days included two rehearsals a day and a planned activity to get to know this part of England. Our conductor and workshop organizer is Brian Kay who was one of the founding members of the King's Singers, one the world's premier singing groups. We sang with him about ten years ago in Canterbury, England and we are pleased to be working with him again. Our days were filled with rehearsals, workshops, site visits, and numerous tea breaks. There are about 160 singers attending mostly from Great Britain, but there were a few singers from Poland, France, Belgium, Norway, Spain, Switzerland, South Africa, the Netherlands, Ireland, Bermuda, and of course the United States. We have met many lovely people and have had many interesting chats. And of course the music. For those of you who might be interested, we rehearsed and then performed the Duruflé Requiem and the Gloria by John Rutter, two most interesting and challenging pieces. The concert took place in Coventry Cathedral. The original cathedral was destoyed by bombing early in World War II and was rebuilt after the war. See photos below.
Following is photo of the two of us and the Conductor, Brian Kay.
