Geordie Proms

On November 1st 2015 I performed at The Sage Gateshead with Sunderland Choir alongside Royal Northern Sinfonia, Bradley Creswick, Dodici Voice, Sarah Fox, Andrew Kennedy, Graeme Danby and Val Reid. The event was entitled "The North East Last Night of the Proms" but colloquially nicknamed The Geordie Proms and showcased local performers. It was the 26th show, which have been performed annually at Newcastle's City Hall, however new artistic director Graeme Danby moved the venue to The Sage, one of the UK's most prestigious music venues.

For the first time ever I was required to sing in a different language, two different languages in fact, as we performed Habanera from Bizet’s Carmen and Mascagni’s Easter Hymn. In French and Italian respectively. This was no easy fate as I don't even consider myself a competent singer in English, however I persevered an I really enjoyed the experience. Once I was familiar with the language sounds the words came and I think we eventually sounded great. Challenges arose with diction, phonetics, interpretation and language translation for singers but being able to sing in a foreign language is such a skill that we worked through them. This set list was also my first experience with classical music and I surprised myself by being able to keep up with confident classical singers. It was definitely a big step up from my musical theatre roots but I gained experience in an entirely different singing style and I look forward to future projects. We also performed classical British pieces, Jerusalem, Rule Britannia and Land of Hope and Glory. As well as a choir version of Sting's pop hit 'Fields of Gold' which we performed in four-part harmony!

Below is The Easter Hymn, as H.L. Mencken says “Opera in English, is about as sensible as baseball in Italian.”