THE INTERNATIONAL SINGERS!
Do you like to sing?
We’ve got a great programme planned for this year’s Christmas Season ranging from traditional favourites such as Holst’s In The Bleak Midwinter and Bach’s Jesu , Joy of Man’s Desiring to John Lennon’s hit song Happy Christmas (War is over). Though half the songs will be in English, we are actually singing in 7 other languages as well including Huron from Canada. Our rehearsals are conducted in English and Catalan.
We are very happy to announce that this year we have a really strong directing team with the American, Robert Bailey, conducting us while the Andorran, Marc Pià accompanies us on the piano. Why not come along to our first rehearsal of the 2011 Christmas season and see if you’d like to join us? We will be starting on Tuesday, 13th September at 8.30pm on the second floor of the Santa Maria del Fener building, Andorra la Vella (opposite the presently closed Plaza Galeria). We rehearse twice a week
on a Tuesday and a Thursday and the rehearsals last for two hours with a pause in the middle. For more info email allcards@andorra.ad or ring Clare on 344 181
Christmas Carol singing in the Ordion church Dec 2010
Singers AGM 2011 Report
Another International Club AGM and another International Singers’ report to be written. I had hoped at this point that my successor, Lydia Magallon, would be writing it but, sadly for me and for the choir, her life has become extremely busy (apart from anything else she is setting up a Scout movement in Andorra) and so I am back as choir organiser – not necessarily a good thing either for the Singers or myself! However other choir members have come to the rescue. Alba Puig and Rosa Maria Beal now organise the concert venues and are attempting to set up our first ever choir exchange, hopefully with a choir across the border in France. Lluís Kallis is in charge of publicity and is also very kindly using his firm, Famagusta, to make our uniforms at a most reasonable price… Leela Herriman is in charge of fostering The Singers’ Friends who most kindly give us financial support throughout the year.
Marc Pià continues to direct and accompany us. Helen Gilroy generously gives us free voice classes before each rehearsal and takes the sopranos for separate practice during the first hour of rehearsals. Leela Herriman and Robert Bailey spend hours at the beginning of each season, recording the various voice parts for CDs which we then give to each Singer to help them practice at home. Finally Maria Rosa Garrallà continues as our excellent treasurer.
The International Singers have grown again and now number 35 members from 17 nationalities. We also now have 5 men ranging in age from 25 to almost 80! Since the last AGM we have sung some six full concerts plus several short ones including one last Christmas around a brazier outside the Canillo comú – at -8 degrees centigrade. We kept that one very short indeed!
This coming summer we hope to represent the Club at the International Day of Multiculturism, probably on 21st May. We are proud to say that this year’s At Home concert has been included in the Escaldes-Engordany programme celebrating their position as Capital of Catalan Culture for 2011. As usual we will be singing a Mass and a short concert at Santa Maria de Meritxell to help celebrate the 25th and 50th wedding anniversaries of residents in Andorra. But our biggest excitement, if it comes off, will be our first ever choir exchange, travelling to the Ariege for a joint concert with a choir there. If we manage to arrange it they will then return at Christmas time to sing a joint concert with us at Santa Maria del Fener on December 11th.
As always we are looking for new singers to join us. We rehearse between 8.30pm and 10.30pm on Tuesdays and Thursdays in the hall above Santa Maria del Fener’s church. This coming Thursday, 24th March, we will be having a choir party after our rehearsal, one of several that we organise each year to give us a better chance to get to know each other; something that is pretty important when you have 17 nationalities to mould into a whole. Anyone interested in joining the choir is most welcome to come along at 8.30pm to see what a rehearsal is like and, at least this Thursday, to join us for the party. If interested do please contact Clare on 344 181 or Marc on 661234.
The Singers held their annual fund-raising concert. “At Home with the Singers” on Friday, 10th June in the Escaldes comú theatre. The refreshments looked particularly delicious this year and many thanks go to all who provided them and to the Club for providing the drinks.