“Two Cities, One Voice” finally became a reality last weekend, when 69 singers from Birmingham Festival Choral Society travelled to Liverpool to sing with the Liverpool Welsh Choral.

The weekend events started with a joint rehearsal on Saturday, led by David Wynne, followed by food and socialising outside with the friendly singers of the Liverpool choir. The campus of Liverpool Hope University looked beautiful in the evening sun.

 

 

Singers dispersed to various Liverpool Hotels for the night, or were guests of Liverpool singers. Sunday morning was taken up with a 3 hour rehearsal led by Keith Orrell, the MD of the Liverpool choir. This was the first time that all of the forces for Carmina Burana had been brought together – the two big choirs, the chamber choir of Belvedere Academy, the percussion group and harpist, soloists Katherine Blumenthal, Elgan Llr Thomas and Gareth John, and pianists Kevin Gill and Stephen Hargreaves.

The Sunday afternoon concert was an amazing experience for everyone involved! The tiredness from the morning was soon forgotten, and we pulled out all the stops to sing the rhythmic and beautiful music of the Chichester Psalms, which was followed by lovely solo items from the Chamber Choir and the harpist. After the interval – the big finale, Carmina Burana! The men of both choirs deserve a special mention for the complex and difficult parts they sang so well in both works.The Lord Mayor and Lady Mayoress of Liverpool, our families and friends from Liverpool and Birmingham gave long applause at the end, and we boarded the coach back to Birmingham with those lovely tunes going round in our heads.

We look forward to the return leg on 17th June, when we will be the hosts to welcome Liverpool Welsh Choral to the Bramall Music Building at the University of Birmingham. We can’t wait to sing those amazing choral works again!

 

 

Some feedback from Liverpool :

From Belvedere Head of Music :

Thank you to everyone today for making such a memorable and amazing experience for our girls. The concert was fantastic. Thank you for inviting us.

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From our guests :

A MESSAGE FROM HER MAJESTY’S LORD-LIEUTENANT OF MERSEYSIDE 

Dear Barbara, Sundays concert at the Philharmonic Hall was absolutely splendid. Two of my favourite works and I have never heard them performed better.

Thank you for asking us to be part of it. Please pass on my thanks to all concern.

Best wishes, Dame Lorna

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From Guy Kelland ( sponsor):

I was glad that we could help support what was a fantastic event, everybody is so talented. Both myself and my guests had a super time…keep singing!

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From our audience/members :

Just wanted to congratulate you and LWC on an absolutely amazing concert. Very well done to all. 

I was in the audience yesterday for the concert, and enjoyed every second of it. Friends in the audience, who had not been to our concerts in the past, were as impressed as I was.  You must feel very proud of the choir, I look forward to regaining my fitness level, so that I can again be part of such a wonderful choir

Thank you  for such an enjoyable concert yesterday, a resounding success, well done!

Our friends from Australia loved it and described it as ‘electrifying’ and ‘fantastic’ whilst a total stranger stopped me outside and said that she’d really enjoyed every minute of the afternoon. I hope all goes as well in Birmingham.

Firstly, what a great concert yesterday!  I really enjoyed performing as
I’m sure the rest of the choir did too, and what complimentary words we
received from Huw!  It makes it all worthwhile when you receive good
feedback from the audience, doesn’t it?

Thought we were amazing. Tim was very complementary (a harsh critic) said the diction was teally clear. All good comments from everyone I’ve spoken to.

WOW!!!….still singing all over after super concert. Choir was in excellent form, well supported by instrumentalists and amazing Belvedere  children. Shame  it was not a full house. Must have been upsetting facing so many empty seats.Hope the message gets home where needed!!!

I don’t usually respond after a concert, but I was quite emotional after today’s performance as I felt the joint choirs sang from their hearts + the deliverance was good – I hope you did too.

Wow! wow! wow! What a fabulous experience. Never known anything like it and we’ve had some marvellous concerts. My husband John was even singing all the way home. Thank you for such a brilliant day and all your hard work with us. Sure Birmingham will be excellent too.