SING IT LOUD - A COMMUNITY CHOIR CELEBRATION

by Tenor Saxophonist Joe Reynolds

The Sing it Loud concert at the Butterworth Hall, Warwick Arts Centre has been one of Seb Farrall's more ambitious projects. The concert, to celebrate the tenth year of the Sing it Loud choir, required the bringing together of two choirs and the City of Culture Orchestra. How he managed to get that number of people onto the same stage at the same time suitably suited and booted I don’t know, but he did and what a show. 

The word ‘eclectic’ is often overused, but there are few others in the thesaurus that cover the repertoire that Seb had prepared for the evening’s entertainment. Pop music, popular classics, hymns and World War II nostalgia along with pyrotechnics and audience participation gave the concert a genuine celebratory ambience. Both the near sell-out audience and the performers left feeling that they had just attended the best party in town.

The evening began with The Appian Way, a march that started as a whisper before gradually building into a fanfare of brass and percussion while the choir filed on to the stage. Once all the performers were settled the show opened with the song Celebration. Lights flashed and streamers dropped from the ceiling, this was a party, and everyone must join in, hands must be clapped, singing along was to be encouraged.

The show continued with Adiemus and Amazing Grace before Seb brought the lights up in order to give the audience instruction on clapping in time. This led to a wild rendition of the William Tell Overture with Seb controlling both orchestra and audience, giving the impression that he possessed more than the regulatory two arms.

The Show Must Go On with numbers from Queen, Leonard Cohen, and Carly Simon before the audience was asked to participate once more, this time with the singing, for a medley of songs by Abba. The first half of the show ended with a visit to the world of musical theatre and opera. First, from the musical Dear Evan Hanson, You Will be Found, followed by two Puccini arias: the second being Seb’s arrangement of Nessun Dorma. This is arguably the most well-known operatic aria in the world. It was sung on the evening by Leah Adams and what a performance. The popularity of this aria means that everyone, orchestra and audience, even the ushers, knows the piece intimately. They know just when that top note arrives and exactly what it should sound like, no pressure then? Her performance was superb, and I doubt I was alone in allowing myself a tear at the finale.

The second half began with a rousing rendition of O Fortuna followed by Coldplay’s Fix You complete with snowflakes and confetti drifting down from the rafters. Not everyone in the orchestra was expecting this, the baritone sax player could be seen frantically trying to stop the paper falling into the bell of her instrument while not missing a note of the score. A nostalgic arrangement of the Andrews Sisters song, Don’t Sit Under the Apple Tree, followed by the Hymn, Total Praise before the orchestra showcased its talent with the ever-popular Jupiter from Holst’s Planet Suite. The mood changed for the choir to perform Anthony Silvestri and Eric Whitacre’s Sleep, ‘a cappella’ style followed by Sing it Loud's accompanist Erica Avery's arrangement of I Dreamed a Dream from Les Misèrables.

The show now moved up tempo with Seb’s arrangement of Africanna, based on the TOTO song followed by the Latin American dance number, Livin’ la Vida Loca. The show was bought to an end with the Intermezzo and Easter Hymn from Cavalleria rusticana.

Of course there was an encore, no one wants to go home from a party. Seb returned to the stage to lead the orchestra in a medley of tunes from West Side Story and rounded off the night by encouraging the audience, once more, to join in with Dancing Queen.

This was a celebration, a coming together for the orchestra and the choirs. How it all worked? None of us knew, but it did. Everyone I spoke to after the show, musicians, singers and audience, some who had never attended an orchestral concert before, said that they had thoroughly enjoyed their night.