Members
This page contains all the information you need to know as a member of the choir, including when we have our rehearsals and what to wear at our concerts.
Rehearsals and term dates
Our rehearsals take place on Tuesdays from 7.30pm-9.30pm at Highbury Baptist Church
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Our term dates for 2019/20 are as follows:
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Autumn:
17th Sep - 10th Dec;
No half term
Concert - 30th Nov
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Spring:
7th Jan - 7th Apr;
Half term - 18th Feb;
Concert: 28th March
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Summer:
28th Apr - 23rd Jun;
Half term - 5th May;
Concert - 27th Jun.
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Choral tour to Bratislava - 1st May- 4th May
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Subscriptions
Membership fees are £150 per annum. There is a concessionary rate of £100 available to members under the age of 25 and to those in receipt of state benefits, not including the State Pension. Members who do not fall into these categories but who nevertheless would otherwise be unable to participate please contact the Membership Secretary. Where possible such cases will be looked at sympathetically.
Ticket sales
Sales of concert tickets are vitally important to pay for the orchestra, soloists, publicity, equipment and the concert venue. Members are therefore required to take and pay for at least two tickets for each concert. As an aside, our membership fees are relatively low compared to other local choirs in London and that’s because requiring members who perform in concerts to buy tickets balances that out.
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It is hoped members will sell all their tickets to ensure we have reasonable audience numbers. You should be aware, though, that if you don’t sell any tickets you will have a financial commitment of an additional £20 or more per concert in addition to the subscriptions.
Musical scores
Vocal scores are provided to members free of charge, whenever possible. If you wish to buy your own copy, the librarians can often provide music at a discount. You may, however, be asked to provide your own copy of Carols for Choirs Book 1 for Christmas concerts (approximate cost £10-£12).
Concert dress
Formal dress is required for all concerts: Men – white shirt, black bow tie, black jacket and trousers or evening dress, black shoes; Ladies – black long-sleeved top, long black skirt or long black trousers, black shoes.
Learning the Music
There is now quite a wide range of websites and other resources which can help to learn the notes of the works we are rehearsing.  All choir members are encouraged to spend some ‘homework’ time so that we can gain maximum benefit at rehearsals without spending long periods ‘note-bashing’.
CHORALIA
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Read the instructions on their title page! You can download and use their ‘Virtual Singer’ program, OR use your normal MP3 player, either playing direct from the web page or downloading. The Virtual Singer files are different from MP3, so there are different ‘catalogue pages’.
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There are separate tracks for each voice part, and three versions of each track – one with Organ and metronome, one with all voices (your voice emphasised), one with just the voices. Superb for progressive learning. Only downside – rather ‘synthesized’ tone and no words.
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Really easy to use (once you have read the instructions!)
CYBERBASS
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Long-established, solid note-bashing site. Not beautiful!
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Inbuilt player on the page (you may need to click to download it the first time) which allows you to control the speed (tempo) of the playback and the sound balance (midi files)
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Separate tracks for each voice part – your voice emphasised against background of all voices, or an equally balanced ‘Tutti’ track
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You can also buy the tracks on a CD
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May give problems on Internet Explorer, especially IE7. Works fine on IE9
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Easy to use
LEARN CHORAL MUSIC
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Relatively basic but practical (midi files again)
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Separate tracks for each voice part, plus ‘UNemphasised’ files which are all the parts played together – ie same as above
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Has a useful page on downloading and using various midi players –
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The individual voice parts may not work well on Windows Media Player