On March 18th 2023 we will be performing a version of Messiah completely shaped around the members of our choir.
Northwood Choral Society has the great fortune to have grown to the ripe old age of 50 years in 2023 and way back in 1973 its first performance included excerpts from Messiah and to pay homage to our 50 years we have decided to create a version of Messiah which fits our choir as we are now.
As MD of Northwood Choral Society for the past five years and a professional singer and voice teacher, it has been my mission that under my tenure the choir members develop not only a solid vocal technique but explore and tell the story and intention of the music in ways they might not have thought of in performances elsewhere. For me a choir is all about connection. Connection with each other firstly, we have together developed a strong caring community within our choir, which is central to our music making. Connection also with our audiences through our story telling and the informality and intimate concerts we produce in our home of St. John's, Northwood.
As a choral society we are small (under 30 members) but extremely well-balanced and another of my innovations as choral director is to develop and use talent from within our choir as soloists for most of the concerts we give. In Messiah we will have Sarah Brameld and Lisa Cuschieri from our Soprano ranks, Scarlet Brett from the Altos and Andrew Bale, Tenor, all of whom are experienced and very fine soloists as well as choral singers.
Messiah is a very long work, and our concerts have the format of being just over an hour long followed by a glass of fizz and cake (in the summer we have wine/fizz and cheese!). We will follow our format and be performing lots of the famous choruses and solos from Messiah (fear not the Hallelujah Chorus will be there) but not every note!
We will also be rolling out our new VIP Programme. Audience members are invited to pay a subscription each year to the choir where they will be given tickets for all the main concerts, the best seats and a glass of fizz on arrival and their own dedicated VIP manager. If you are interested in finding out more about becoming an NCS VIP please check out this page for more details.
I do hope that we will see you at our Messiah celebration - you can reserve your tickets now by visiting northwoodchoralsociety.com
I look forward to welcoming you there!
Julie Bale | Choral Director, Northwood Choral Society
Julie Bale is a Soprano, Voice Teacher, Choral Director and Clinical Hypnotherapist for Singers. She has worked in the music industry for over 30 years studying with the eminent voice specialist Janice Chapman . She has performed in Opera and Oratorio all over the UK singing repertoire from Mozart to Wagner. She runs an online vocal technique course for singers and online courses in hypnotherapy for Singers. She has been the Choral Director of Northwood Choral Society since 2017. See her dedicated website hypnotherapyforperformance.com for more details.
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