Having the summer to think about this, David has now become a “gleek”, watching both series for inspiration.

Our reputation has also grown and we now have four booked engagements before Christmas already and the chance to record our very own CD.

As ever, new and old faces are always welcome, Choir school starts back on the 16th September at Harbury village hall 6.30-7.30 for Harbury Young Voices and continuing until 8.00 for Chamber choir.

I’m sure all will agree that the choir has gone from strength to strength during this academic year. It seems a very long time ago that we led a very nervous bunch of children out to perform for Remembrance Day. You would hardly have recognised them as the same choir singing ‘Let me Entertain You’ on Thursday – such have they grown in confidence and singing ability.

To celebrate individual achievements, awards were given out and are listed below for the children to ‘see their name in lights’

Graded awards receive a pin badge. These are given according to our own structured syllabus of progression in technique, confidence and music theory.

Certificates were also awarded for Chamber Choir Entrants and Special Commendations.

Level One – Adagio Award:

Danny, Ben and Elizabeth

Level Two – Andante Award:

Lauren, Chloe, Eleanor, Jessica and Sophie

Level Three – Allegro Award:

Chelsea, Jo, Lucinda, Meredith and Aimee L

Chamber Choir:

Dominic, Jay, Caitlin, Eve M, Aimee C and Jasmine

Special Commendation:

Aimee L – for confident and attentive singing

Jo – for keen, attentive singing

Lauren – for keen, confident singing

Lucinda – for leadership, reliability and confidence

Our first wedding booking last month was highly successful – so much so that we have our next wedding this week! The children had prepared well and knew that the pressure was on for them to give a great performance for the Bride and Groom’s special day. We sang three pieces on our own, as well as the congregational hymns. All the children sang very well, producing a lovely clear sound. Special mention must go to Jay and Dominic, who sang solos, and to the Chamber Choir, who sang the harmony parts. You can hear recordings of the songs from the wedding ceremony on our website.

Members of the Chamber Choir have also made the journey to sing in Birmingham for the inauguration of the Lord Mayor. This was a scary first outing for most of them, as they have only been members of Chamber Choir for less than a term! It was definitely a baptism of fire to be expected to read complicated written music and sing with a full choir. However, they rose to the challenge and presented themselves as competent, professional young singers. We are very proud of them.

We are now looking forward to our ‘Summer Pops’ Concert to mark the end of the year. On Thursday 15th July, we will be holding a FREE informal evening concert at Harbury Village Hall. This is open to everyone, and in the true spirit of summer, we hope that you will come along with friends and bring a picnic tea to enjoy with the music. There will be a raffle with a free glass of pimms/soft drink and cake with every ticket.

Doors open at 6pm for 6.30pm start.

We look forward to seeing you there!

A fantastic day! Take a look at a collection of photographs and music from the whole day.

Thank you to all those who helped out and all the singers who came along, hopefully you enjoyed it as much as we did!!

If you have any comments on the day please post them below it would be great to hear from you.

The 2010 Make a Noise workshop is being held on SATURDAY 20th FEBRUARY and this year will be an adventure into the songs of the Beatles.

The workshop is open to all aged 7-16 and will involve singing, dance, live music, craft, face painting and more! It is a great day packed with fun from 10.45am to 4pm with an open public performance at 4.30pm for all to enjoy.

We are very lucky to have a great group of musicians coming to play for us again this year – with the addition of drums and guitars to the line-up of woodwind and brass for extra rock-and-roll factor.

There is a charge of £5 per child to cover costs and each child will need a packed lunch on the day. Places are limited, so be sure to sign up early.

See you there!!

This year kicks off for us on Thursday 7th January 2010 at the Village Hall from 6.30-7.30pm for Harbury Young Voices and 7.30-8.00pm for the Chamber Choir.

We have an exciting programme of songs to work on this term and hope to find everyone in good voice and ready to sing!! As always, we welcome new members and are open to anyone aged 7-16. If you are thinking of joining, please contact us to register your interest.

The New Year also sees the return of our very popular ‘Make a Noise’ workshops, which allow anyone to get involved without a regular commitment. Following the success of the Mamma Mia day last year, we will be running a one day workshop on Saturday 20th February.

The children will again be joined by members of The Warwickshire Band to have the invaluable experience of working up close with live musicians. The day of singing, music, dance, acting, art and fun will culminate in an open public performance. There will be a charge of £5 per child for this event to cover costs. Spaces will be limited so make sure to register early. We are very excited about this year’s ‘Make a Noise’ theme but you will have to watch this space for more details!!

Leamington Courier 12/11/09

The performance drew an audience of around 100 people of all ages from the local community. Even passing cars and a van collecting timber for the local bonfire stopped to hear the children sing.

The concert had a modern feel; using pop songs and live instrumentals on Saxophone and Clarinet by Helen Iles of The Warwickshire Band – Royal Regiment of Fusiliers. There were also traditional Remembrance Day elements. Two poems were read by the youngsters before the Last Post, which was played by the Choir’s Musical Director, David Iles and Ian Bode of The Warwickshire Band.

During the silence, two young singers laid a poppy wreath made from over 200 hand painted poppies. Each poppy was made by the children using their fingerprints – continuing the theme of ‘Joining Hands in Hope’ of this year’s Poppy Appeal.

The Harbury Choir School put a fresh take on the traditional Remembrance Day. The concert had an overall feeling of being part of the local community and bringing people together. An emotional reaction from the audience, showed that war has affected many of us. This message of hope coming from the youth of our community is one that we should not forget.

Novemeber 7th 2009, Harbury

As always our young singers did us proud – they always seem to end up being put right on the front row of anything we do! They were impeccably behaved and their unusual bright purple ties even attracted the attention of the dignitaries, who wanted to know which choir they were from and congratulate them on their performance.

As most of the children had arrived on the same train, I expect that the journey home was interesting for parents and other passengers; as everyone (including David and I) seemed to leave the event buzzing and unable to stop singing!

We are also looking forward to the first ever performance for the whole choir; including the new look ‘Harbury Young Voices’, who have now been rehearsing together for 6 weeks. We will be singing a Remembrance Tribute on Saturday 7^th November: ‘Songs of Remembrance and Hope’ including some beautiful contemporary songs. The performance will begin at 12.15 at the Harbury War Memorial and is a free concert open to all, lasing for approximately 45 minutes – hopefully it will be a good way to spend the afternoon before going to the bonfire and fireworks display!

We have now created ‘Harbury Young Voices’ which will be a fun, informal choir open to everyone aged 7-16. This choir will be based on popular music and songs. We will work from word sheets so that no prior musical knowledge is necessary. They will have their own uniform and logo, which we will be working with members of this choir to design.

The second section of the choir will be run as a ‘Chamber Choir’. This will be an auditioned smaller choir and the singers will be taught to read music. In addition to music from the ‘Young Voices’ section, we will work on more complex music involving part singing and classical works.

We hope that these changes will make the choir more accessible to all local youngsters – from those who want to come along and have a laugh to those who are serious about singing. We had a great start to the Autumn Term last week in our new venue of the Village Hall at 6.30pm on Thursdays. Word has obviously spread, as we have seen an increase in the numbers coming to choir!

In ‘Young Voices,’ we sang through ‘Just Dance’ by Lady Gaga and a ‘Band Aid’ style song called ‘No More Wars’; both of which everyone enjoyed. We will be working on some solos and harmony parts for these during the coming weeks. The Chamber Choir are working on writing a song of their own and will be looking at some classical pieces in the next few weeks.

Our first public performance of the term will be upon us before we know it so watch this space…