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6 February Update

Week 5

This week you can read about:

  • Rehearsal update

  • Dates for the diary:

    • 15 Feb - Fairfield Halls (evening detail included)

    • 20 Feb - COTH social at Westow House pub

  • 'Getting to know you' - COTH Member profile - this week, our lovely Carol!


Rehearsal

This week we worked through all of the songs that we'll be singing at the Fairfield Halls performance on the 15th Feb (see 'Dates for the diary' below for more details on timing, set list etc). Remember you can practice all of our songs by visiting our Lyric & Audio Library.


We recorded a video of us singing a full run through of Shallow.

You may notice that our videos will now be hosted on our very own YouTube channel! This will allow us to post videos without losing quality due to compression (which is required to host on Facebook or Instagram). It also gets around the time restrictions there are with other social media.


DATES FOR THE DIARY


SATURDAY 15 FEBRUARY Fairfield Halls, Amateur Arts Showcase


There is still time to sign up for our performance at Fairfield Halls.


You can also find the event plan and lyric pack on the Performing page of our website.


If you are a new to COTH and don't feel ready to perform yet, you are very welcome to come along and watch as part of the audience.


The details

Fairfield Halls are hosting an Amateur Arts Showcase in the public open spaces of their venue on Saturday 15 February between 2pm - 7.15pm.

This will be a showcase of all that the Borough of Croydon has to offer, with a blend of cultures, styles, genres of music, art and design.

You are welcome to just participate in our performance but please see below for more information on what else is happening, including details on the evening performances following the free showcase.


LOCATION

Fairfield Halls, Park Lane, Croydon, CR0 1JD


TIMING

14.20 - 14.45 - warm-up in the green room

  • we recommend you arrive in the foyer at around 2pm

14.50 - 15.10 - performance


We'll be on a temporary stage in the entrance foyer. This means that along with members of the public, friends and family may come to watch for free.

The songs we'll be signing are:

  • Chiquitita

  • Time after Time

  • You've Got a Friend

  • My Favourite Things

  • Hallelujah I just love him so

  • Shallow


Evening performance

Following the free showcase (2 - 7pm) there is an evening performance:-

7.30pm: Changing Seasons: London Mozart Players

Tickets from only £5


What is Changing Seasons?

Changing Seasons is a multi-genre spectacular from LMP that reimagines Vivaldi’s Four Seasons for today’s changing world. This unique production blends Vivaldi’s classic with new works from four local arts groups – Queer Croydon x Stanley Arts, Club Soda, Subrang Arts, and Croydon Music & Arts – in collaboration with composers Fiona Brice and Sarah Freestone. Inspired by Vivaldi’s seasonal themes, these performances reflect on the climate emergency through a vibrant mix of genres and art forms.

Featuring poetry by Croydon’s Jeremiah Brown, dynamic dance, and video introductions, this Croydon-made event culminates in a stunning performance at Fairfield Halls.

For more information, see the Changing Seasons flyer


THURSDAY 20 FEBRUARY COTH social at Westow House pub, Crystal Palace  

During the half term break, we're having a social gathering at the Westow in Crystal Palace. This will be for informal drinks and chat from 7pm.

All details are in our Calendar and also included below:

Westow House


GETTING TO KNOW YOU - COTH Member Profile

Each week we'll be speaking to different members of the choir so you can get to know them a little better. Please speak to Vicky if you'd like to be featured.



Carol Clapperton, COTH member


Tell us a little bit about yourself - where you're from/where you live now etc.

My heritage is Irish/Welsh/English but I’m Sarf London to the core. Even when I wanted to break free and applied for a job in Warrington, they posted me to Croydon! It is meant to be.


What are your favourite songs:

  • To get you in the mood for a big night out

    My student days were spent clubbing in Liverpool in the 1980s so I’ll always gravitate to that time. New Order’s Blue Monday is my go-to, only topped by Heaven 17’s Temptation. These are also my mood lifter songs and karaoke belters. Liverpool was the absolute best place to be in the 80’s with local groups like Frankie Goes to Hollywood. I lived around the corner from members of both Echo and the Bunnymen and The Christians. That was when I lived off Penny Lane and my uni was opposite John Lennon’s house and Strawberry Fields.


Are there any types of music you're not keen on and why?

Some bits of country music leave me cold but not Dolly of course. But otherwise I’ll take anything, my go to may be not to everyone’s taste.  I’m more radio 4 than radio 1. If I hear Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite or some bits of Khachaturian, it doesn’t matter what I’m doing I have to stop and focus. I’m a massive Bernstein fan. But it needs to be juggled with some indy stuff – Jungle (the band) at the moment and I cook to jazz.


What brought you to Choir on the Hill and how long have you been singing with us?

I work all the hours God sends and wanted something for me. Always loved to sing. TBH, it was originally the venue which drew me to this choir, when it was at Stanley Halls. I chaired the group that fought to take Stanley Halls from the Council and built the business that currently runs the place. It was very hard work and I promised myself one day I would go back to the Halls as punter and do something I loved. Ironically we are no longer at Stanley Halls but the choir wins over the venue.


Which female musical artists do you admire and why?

Kate Bush (of course). Ella Fitzgerald, her voice makes me melt. Closer to home, my daughter Charlie is an opera singer and her voice is sublime – others tell me this, it’s not just motherly pride.


Who are your female role models?

Marin Alsop, an amazing conductor who has fought to raise women’s profiles. Josephine Baker, as a Black American artist in Paris during the jazz age who was a member of the French Resistance and a civil rights campaigner. I have to say Charlie, to have the sheer determination to study for 8 years and work so hard in a niche area, she starts at 9.30am through to 10pm, often 7 days a week. Most people give up and never reach her stage, it is brutal but she is so determined and there can never be a plan b.


Tell us a surprising or little known fact about yourself.

I was once held at gun point by the Russian army.


What is your favourite thing about being part of Choir on the Hill?

The sisterhood, it is always warm and welcoming, even when I’ve been away working for 10 weeks. And the sheer joy of singing and laughing together.




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