Author: jhulayogayork

Big thanks go to all who supported our Summer Concert which has raised £500 for St Nicholas Field’s Nature Explorers programme of family activities! Judging by the feedback we’ve had, the audience thoroughly enjoyed the diverse mix of classical music masterfully performed by pianist Matthew Palmer and cellists Sarah Sigsworth, Catherine Strachan and Frances Jones, as well as songs from around the world sung by The Stonegate Singers , and Brinley Price’s nature-inspired poems. Also thanks to Lewis Outing for great photos and to all the helpers!

Summer Concert raises £500 for Nature Explorers

We had a fantastic performance on Tuesday night at the Joseph Rowntree Theatre, as part of the Community Choir Festival that’s been running there for the past 10 years.

The choir sounded amazing, and we’ve really got to a whole new level in terms of performance, tuning and the quality of the sound we’re making.

We’ve had some very strong new member come too, who’ve really made a difference to how the choir sounds.

Looking forward to the next chapter…

 

 

We had a great time performing as part of Canopy of Voices at the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, and I was even interviewed by BBC Radio 3! The piece was the product of Manasamitra, an artistic collective directed by South Indian singer and composer Supriya Nagarajan (see here: http://www.manasamitra.com/). James Cave  was the main composer for the piece, working alongside Supriya and Duncan Chapman, with text provided by the poet Shash Trevett.

Stonegate Singers director Jon Hughes is also running York Big Sing this summer, and he ran a workshop in Rowntree Park on Sunday, followed by a short Stonegate Singers concert in the Park!

We had a lovely concert at the Unitarian Chapel in St Saviourgate on 30th June, to celebrate the 20th Anniversary of St Nicholas Fields Nature Reserve and Environment Centre.  The Unitarian Chapel filled up and the audience was very appreciative of the varied programme. Thea Jacob who came along summed it up well: “It was a wonderful evening and represented St Nicks brilliantly: inspirational, uplifting, purposeful, celebrating the richness and beauty of life and each person’s equal importance and value as a thread in the fabric of our world.”

 

Big thanks go to all the performers: David Hammond on piano, Sarah Sigsworth on cello, community choir The Stonegate Singers, who sang songs from around the world as well as the premiere of David Hammond’s choral arrangement of ‘Haiku for St Nicks’ written by local poet Brinley Price, Brinley himself read a couple of his other poems inspired by St Nicks, and Cliff Wilton read out extracts of the Tang Hall Tip 1939-1947 poem. Equally warm thanks go to Lewis Outingfor taking beautiful photos, all the event helpers, and especially to those who came along and helped us raise £600 on the night!

 

Members of the Stonegate Singers, along with director Jon Hughes, led a singing workshop on Sunday as part of Tea in the Park in Rowntree Park, York. The event was part of The Great Get Together, (https://www.greatgettogether.org/), a nationwide series of events this past weekend celebrating the life of Labour MP Jo Cox, who sadly died last year.