Blog post #48 - ChoirKate - The Final Chorus

So it is my lovelies, that we come to my beloved Sossies!
I say “my” possessively, but in reality they are OUR beloved Sossies, Sue Webster’s and mine.

(SOS was originally Sounds of Southgate, where we were based, but rebranded Sounds of Singing when we moved to Wesley, post Covid)


Gorgeous Girls and how that all that panned out in the end was again stressful!
(Yes, there is a pattern here……)
But because Sue was on the touch line of that through her involvement of bringing that special album into the world, she was also there to declare, “before you say it, you’re not done yet……your next choir needs to operate 21st Century style and you need to be able to focus on the music.”
And so it was that she enticed me back on the horse again, but with her driving the managerial/PR side of things. 
Match made in heaven!

The other big difference was that it was to be an adult choir. I’d never had one of ‘em before!
I loved my youth choirs, but there’s no question that things had become cumbersome as we, all of us, got bogged down in the post 2000 era of terrifying technology and with litigation breathing down our necks!
At least with adults we were able to create our own policies and protocols and Sue came up with a streamlined version of the nuts and bolts “show within the show,” as it were.

We were very small to begin with. I even had to get Astra mates in to lend their voices in our early seasons. 
I decided that this choir, community choir though it was clear we were, would be ALL about the music!

I was so uncaring that I didn’t even give the Sossies a tea-break, preferring to hold 7/11, a short solo workshop at 7pm for 11 minutes, to give their voices a rest, yet keeping them on task with the singing thing, and at the same time give budding soloists a bit of extra performance practice. 
And our early start and therefore early finish, meant that we were user friendly for workers and families.
That Sossies increasingly chose to go to the pub was not my affair……🤣

So, the sense of community grew despite me and of course, it IS the case that the very act of singing together creates, well, togetherness!
I used to joke about it.
“None of those warm and fuzzies welcome here!” I laughed, all the while getting teary with the tingle factor myself!
Anyway, SOS has brought me so much joy and has turned out to be my longest running choir thanks to my darling friend Sue. 

Our first big moment was at the end of 2016, our second year of SOS, when The Stacey Trust finally closed its doors after 20 years of our award for emerging conductors. (We had finished ten years of fund raising in 2006 when VoxSynergy was on my block, but we continued to give our award for another ten years)
Out came “Make Our Garden Grow” one final time for the last hurrah Stacey Night! What a night it was! I was so proud of my Sossies that night. Musically, it was off the scale for us. Literally! But even though there were few Sossies who might have understood the importance of the occasion, nonetheless they went the distance. 

The other thing that Sue and I had devised was that our seasons would only ever be about Tuesdays. 
It has been rare for us to do things outside Tuesdays and we always made it clear that it was never an expectation that we’d have a full choir if we stepped outside that day of the week
Nonetheless, for that Monday night gig, they were all there!
The Sossies were joined by dear friends of Stace who came to support The Trust one last time; so with our ranks swelling we were a match for the Stacey All Star Big Band and blew the room away with Bernstein’s glorious finale to Candide.

And the following night, our regular Tuesday night rehearsal, still they all turned up. That night was the 20th Anniversary of Stacey’s passing and I was taken out to the concourse at St Johns, serenaded with “Where Everything Is Music” while balloons were sent out into the sky to honour Stace and the moment. 
Getting teary thinking about it…..all of it.

That generosity of spirit has been the hallmark of our beloved Sossies.

Of course I wrote loads for them, tweaking even the commercial charts we bought to make them singable and user friendly.
I had started doing part files long before SOS, by crassly putting my phone in memo mode on the desk and singing along to the Sibelius file playing from my computer. Sue took me in hand and taught me how to use GarageBand. I’m sure you can hear her rolling her eyes because it took a while to get me over that line, let me tell you!
Never been fond of tech learning curves, but of course she was doing me a favour.

It was never the case that we expected Sossies to be music readers, although as time went by we have attracted some great Sossie musoes, I have to say. 
But most have work and busy families and so practice in the car is where they get to know the season’s songs, often with the kids singing along from the back seat too!
But yes, those part files have played a big part in the Sossie success. 

Our shows were always that. I wasn’t beholden to anyone. I had been going down that path for a long time really. I mean, you can take the girl out of the theatre, but you can’t take the theatre out of the girl can you?!
So we had segues and theatrical devices and now the solo items were also drawn into the arena. 
Typically our performances have had anything and everything across history, continents and all manner of vocal styles and genres all joined together in one glorious continuum, the music speaking for itself.                                                                                                                                                                              
Any good song welcome here my friends!
I love the thought that people go away having heard something new and different, something they might never have come across were it not for the SOS experience. 
There have been so many special moments, I barely know where to start, let alone finish, but finish I really must. 
We’re now in the land of YouTube, so no, there is no Sossie album, but plenty of memories forever in the ether. 
Sue has devised countless mash ups and song highlights so you can fossick to your heart’s content….
(Remember to google both Sounds of Southgate and Sounds of Singing)

But, tip of the iceberg though these are, here are some selections I hold dear…..

My first two are arrangements which I created from the ground up as there was no sheet music, not even a lead sheet or chord chart for these babies!
Thank you Trinity College for all that laborious ear training drilled into me all those years ago!!!!

Ruwenzori is by Miriam Stockley. 
Caleb Salizzo - piano
JoJo Kitley - clarinet 
Nadene Gilmore, Evie Anderson and Mairead O’Connor -percussion 
https://youtu.be/krDTLmVobCs?si=B9aAovJzVnHpylDK

Hold On To Love is an original of my bro Toby Sadler
Morgen Pepper - soloist
Linda O’Brien - piano
Annie Gleisner - saxophone
https://youtu.be/L10T_4_ITLA?si=Yg2O-jEkD3akvzzO


One of the Sossies’ greatest achievements was marking the Centenary of the WW1 armistice in 2018 with our Centenary Cantata. 
Not The Great War (KS)>There’s No Place Like Home (as per Dame Nellie Melba)>Nella Fantasia - Morricone
Jane Devlin - soloist
Linda O’Brien - piano
https://youtu.be/xyruIBYfE-4?si=3U42Yr7Rjfi2a0FP

And finally a couple of KateSongs:
Song For Mother (for our Mum’s, Sue and I - both passed since)
Sara Grenfell - soloist
Linda O’Brien - piano
https://youtu.be/vViaW1CUnIQ?feature=shared 

As with many choirs we were knocked around by Covid, but kept going on line, keeping our voices in trim and learning new songs even in those strange circumstances. 
When we were finally able to sing together again we needed a larger, safer, airier space and we were thrilled that Wesley gave us such a warm welcome as we fired up again.
We nearly managed a season in the first half of 2021, but Covid had other ideas!
Since then we have had four fabulous seasons in 2022 and this year 2023, to round off what has been for me, not only a beautiful experience, but a fitting end to the 50 years of my adult life as ChoirKate; with the last 25 years spanning the first utterance of LAWA and the last chorus of Sing Like There’s No Tomorrow on 28th November. 
I never expected KateSongs. I like to think that they are Stace’s gift to me……

Thank you to Sue for everything that gave ChoirKate this extra decade of fun, friendship and music making with our beloved Sossies.
Finally……
“Hear the sound of all those voices
As they sing in harmony, 
Reaching down to heal all sorrow,
A sweet celestial symphony.
Though it takes many a light year
To reach across the universe,
The day we’re born it starts its journey,
To hold our hand in every verse, every line and every word,
The song of our Guiding Star.”

Song of the Guiding Star
Lareen Ashbolt - soloist
Linda O’Brien -piano
Klara Rawdanowic- violin
https://youtu.be/TZVLFqRK_6A?si=HWxJPRUAckWLnlVK

It has been so for my life thus far and I have no doubt it will hold true in whatever the next strange chapter holds for me.
May it be so for you too.
These Memory Lanes have been for my own benefit really.
I could have just as easily kept a journal and saved you all the eye-rolling relentlessness of my recollections!
But hey, it’s been fun to set it down.

​But if you have journeyed with me either here, or for a year or two singing with ChoirKate, I thank you from the bottom of my heart for every moment of our time together. 
The richest of blessings to have shared so much for so long with so many beautiful souls.
Kxx

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