Welcome to my first blog entry! Something completely new to me that was due to start with the dawning of the new year 2016. A little delayed now, but I thought that the first day of British Summer Time was another good place to start - so here we go.
New Year's resolutions - those things we so often make and then break within a few days, weeks or at a stretch, maybe months. This year I made no declarations, but quietly resolved to make a few changes: I wanted to become a bit more social, meet new people and engage in some new activities. I wanted to make more of living in this amazing capital city with so much on offer if only you try a little harder to find it and enjoy.
So what have I done I hear you cry. Well I joined a new choir of male voices Bellow Fellows in January, which has meant meeting lots of new people of course and has led to performing on the stage of the Royal Festival Hall recently as part of another new choir created for the Southbank's Chorus festival Beyond The Bassline, in a gig called Choirs Remixed. So even more lovely people met and a truely fantastic experience, performing both on our own and as part of a massed choir of over 300 voices together with Andreya Triana and Shlomo.
Bellow Fellows, March 2016 photo: Dom Stitchbury
Choirs Remixed at the RFH, March 2016
Yesterday I went to the Union Chapel in Islington for the first time for a Daylight Music event staged for Piano Day. One of those many, if you look for them, amazing free events that London has to offer and it was brilliant! We were treated to no less than six sets, with five artists including Angus McCrae, Gavin Greenaway, Ivan Ilić, Haiku Salut and Poppy Ackroyd. This new experience was thanks to Si Gulliford, one of my Bellow Fellows, who posted it on our Facebook page.
More of these sorts of events to come me thinks.....
Gavin Greenaway, Daylight Music gig for Piano Day, Union Chapel, Islington, London 26 March 2016
Poppy Ackroyd, Daylight Music gig for Piano Day, Union Chapel, Islington, London 26 March 2016