Who will make it through to Boot Camp?

Concerned that we might go a whole week without a guest at the rehearsal, David-the-Conductor nobly went skiing this week so we could have Howard-the-Conductor as a guest. It’s always interesting having a guest conductor, as they pick up on different things, throwing the influence of our normal conductor into sharp relief. So for example, Howard-the-Conductor asked us to sing our “ah” sounds in a narrower, darker fashion to make the sound more rounded. A perfectly legitimate style suggestion, but it caused some dubious looks and panicked exchanges of glances. Little did he know he was going against a central Daviddologism – the bright open “ah” sound in an Italianate style. We had a go, but we clearly weren’t comfortable. You’d think we were all from the West Midlands. David should be very proud of how well schooled we all are.

The Sound and Vision event doth approach, and we have an extra rehearsal on Sunday to prepare properly. Unfortunately (and very unusually) we have more people signed up for the concert than we have room for. The choir's policy on concerts is that if you don’t know the music well enough to look up from the copy, you don’t get to sing, so usually numbers naturally reduce. But none of us want to miss out on this event, so everyone is revising frantically. On Sunday we’re actually going to be filmed to catch those with their noses buried in their copies, who might then be asked to step out of the concert if not enough people voluntarily drop out. It feels a bit like the X Factor. I have an extra handicap when it comes to visual presentation, though, as I happen to know I look like a rabbit in the headlights when I’m singing. If you ever see the DVD of Beth Neilsen Chapman’s concert in St Pauls, I’m the one behind Beth looking really worried. So as well as revising the music I’m also spending time in front of the mirror trying to look nonchalant. I could cope with losing out on the concert because I didn’t know the music well enough, but imagine getting dropped for giving off a general air of doom!