At last - the official launch!

On Saturday 5th February we finally launched Two Sisters and a Funeral.  Over a hundred singers gathered at Christ Church Burney Lane to learn the musical and perform it all in one day.  There was an incredible buzz around the place, and people seemed to really enjoy themselves.

We had the full team of soloists from the CD taking part during the day - Emily and Aly as Mary and Martha, Martin and Devon as Jesus and Lazarus, as well as Caroline and Amy as some women of Bethany and Jonathan, Bill, Pete and Richard as our 'baddies'.  There were quite a number of other future soloists at the day, including Phil, Wendy, Sarah, Carolynn and Yvette.

Roger kicked off the day with a bit of worship and teaching about the themes underlying the musical, and then we spent a bit of time all together working on a few of the songs.  Then we split into sectionals - Annie took the sopranos and altos, and Helen the tenors and basses.  It was so lovely to put it all together at the end of the day, and hear one another's progress.

After a short break, we let the audience in.  As there were so many in the choir the audience had to sit in the chancel - at least 30 of them, including Alison Fuggle, Tim Jones, Ann Parkin, chair of the trust, Beresford and Kate King-Smith, and families and friends of the soloists.  The performance went really well, and Helen and Annie improvised some solo instrumental parts.  Annie will eventually write some official tour parts for when we have the occasional instrumentalist during the performances over the next couple of years.

A weekend in Bramhall

While Annie was busy leading Simeon in a day in Droitwich, Roger led a team to Bramhall just south of Manchester for a weekend of Two Sisters and a Funeral.  Roger, Jonathan, Amy and Helen travelled up on Friday night, and then were joined on Saturday by Martin, Wendy, Devon and Pete.  It was both Wendy and Pete's first gig - fantastic to have them with us.

The day had been organised by Paul Barnsley, who runs an organisation called Heart Notes Ministries.  Paul has been a wonderful supporter of CMM over the years and we have often held a kind of pre-tour practice performance of a new musical with him.

Paul had gathered a wonderful choir of over 60 singers to come and learn the musical in a day, and he and his wonderful band of helpers had also catered for everyone.  The choir worked incredibly hard as Helen and Roger taught the musical, and the final outcome was pretty good!  It was very tricky to learn in a day (we have since used sectionals, which makes a huge difference), but the choir managed it.  For the evening performance the audience wasn't quite outnumbered by the choir, but they had to sit all around it!

Roger, Amy, Jonathan and Helen stayed overnight with wonderful hosts, and then led the service at Bramhall Methodist on the Sunday morning.  Most of CMM's previous events in Bramhall have been at the Anglican church, but this time it was great to be able to spend some time with the Methodists.  We were welcomed wonderfully, and the service was great fun - the whole congregation even joined in with Helen's children's actions song!  Roger spoke on the 'More Than' God, and also shared some of the pictures and words we had at EBRG on the preceding Thursday.  It was great at the end of the service to spend lots of time chatting and praying with people.  We had a lot more requests for prayer after the morning service than after the musical, so this shows that our new schedule of including some input into a regular church service is a good way to go.

Huge thanks go to Paul for organising such a wonderful weekend, and thanks to all his helpers.

Simeon in a Day

On Saturday 29th January, Annie continued in her series of musicals-in-a-day with Simeon at Droitwich Methodist Church Centre.  Annie had a wonderful team for the day, comprising of Paul Edwards, Kathleen Owen, Caroline Finney and Beresford King-Smith.  It was great that Beresford could be involved as he plays Simeon on the original recording, and wrote the narrative links between the songs.

Annie says that it was an incredible day - a huge choir of 60 or so, and some fantastic singers among them.  There were also a lot of instrumentalists, which meant that the final performance could be live, and the backing track could stay in its case.

Jenny Bulman contacted Annie afterwards with some pictures and a note:

Let me just say again a very big thank you for such an uplifitng and enjoyable day on Saturday. Several people have said how they felt blessed by the whole experience and would love you to come again.  I have just about stopped spinning round now and can enjoy it calmly in retrospect and am looking forward to playing the CD of 2 sisters.

Apostle in a day, Harborne

On Saturday 22nd January, Annie led 'Apostle in a Day' for the churches together in Harborne, Birmingham.  It isn't often we are asked to lead something so close to home - Annie could have walked there!  The church was St. Faith and St. Lawrence, one of several large Anglican churches in the Harborne area, as well as lots of other denominations.  Annie spoke at a churches together in Harborne event last year, and the invitation for a musical in a day followed on from that.

Annie had with her on team Jonathan and Amy - Jonathan taking the part of Paul, and Amy filling in a variety of other things including Ananias.

Annie says that the day was absolutely wonderful.  There were over 40 in the choir with quite a few in the audience in the evening.  Even the vicar, Priscilla, took part.  A musical in a day is a brilliant way to celebrate the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, as it can bring so many different denominations together.

Holy Spirit Workshops

The day after the evening with Devon in Hemel Hempstead, the CMM team travelled the very short distance up the road to Watford, to the Church of the Nazarene.  The church had decided to have their away weekend at home, and invited CMM to come and lead the morning service and also a couple of Holy Spirit workshops.

It is always a challenge to travel to churches that are unfamiliar, as it is very difficult to know what people are used to regarding Sunday morning worship, and also how far to introduce anything new.  The congregation at the Church of the Nazarene seemed to take everything in their stride, and were very welcoming and open.  Roger spoke about the 'More Than' God, and Helen led worship.  Annie and Roger did a bit of a 'name that tune' session as part of the service too, which was great.

After the service we were served up some absolutely amazing home made soup and cakes, which set us up nicely for the afternoon.  Annie led a workshop called 'Never too old to serve', which was about ministering to one another in the power of the Holy Spirit, and Helen led a receiving the Holy Spirit workshop.  Interestingly, Helen ended up with most of the church leadership in her workshop - perhaps they just wanted to sit in God's presence and just receive for a while and let the rest of the congregation do the work!

After the workshops we gathered together for one last short plenary session.   One lady shared something incredibly interesting.  During the morning service she had had a song going around in her head - a very old song that she hadn't thought of for years.  At the end of the service, Annie had deeply felt that she should play this particular song, even though she hadn't played it for years.  Amazing how in something very small like that, God can meet with us all as individuals and show us how much he loves us and cares for us.

Thanks so much to Eva for sticking her neck out and inviting us.  It was fantastic to be able to hold a day focusing on the Holy Spirit.

Your performances...

At Christmas we received a couple of reports about how well your own performances of Roger's musicals have gone around the country.

We received this from Mary Edwards:

Dear Roger
I contacted you a few weeks  ago and you very kindly gave me permission to perform your musical,"The Inn Crowd" at Linslade Methodist Church, Leighton Buzzard.  It took place on Wed evening, Dec 15th and quite a few of the older folk turned out in spite of the very cold night.  Quite a few of my choir were suffering from bad colds and coughs.

I gave the congregation  your greetings and they appreciated the performance very much.
Quite a number of folk told the choir and myself how much they had enjoyed the modern music and drama.
They said it was so easy to follow the story and understand the christian message.
Most of the folk that came were over 70!!

So thank you Roger for allowing me to share this lovely musical with the dear folk at Linslade.
May God Bless you and your team in the work that you do and long may it continue.

We also received this report from Danny White in Blyth:

Just a few lines to update you with the events over Christmas involving the music The Inn Crowd & Stargazers.
                  
Our Central Methodist Church Choir and Friends performed The Inn Crowd in place of our normal evening service.  The lord did smile on us as the weekend we performed was clear of snow,(the first time for weeks) It proved to be well received ,which was particularly pleasing as it was dedicated to a recently deceased church member. A further comment from a widowed member of the church, that she found the message and music uplifting.
The Churches Together in Blyth were asked to sing at the Town Carol Service and we chose Just You from Stargazers which was very well received, uplifting and put us in the mood for O Come all ye Faithful immediately after.

Thanks so much for letting us know how things are going.  I've you've got a performance coming up, let us know the dates, and also send us a report!  It is always so encouraging to hear how God is using the music.

An Evening with Devon

On Saturday 15th January a team from CMM travelled to the South Hill Centre in Hemel Hempstead.  We had been invited by Sarah Moreton, trainer of the Joyful Noise Choir (our regular Watford/Hemel area choir), to come and hold an Evening with Devon.

We last held one of these evenings about a year ago at Barnt Green Parish Church near Birmingham and used quite a big group of backing singers and instrumentalists.  This time the evening was quite different.  We had the wonderful added dimension of Sarah's choir for quite a few of the songs, which meant we did not need so many backing singers - in the end the team was just Devon, Roger, Trish, Paul, Sarah, Annie and Helen.

We included an interval for the first time, and either side of the interval we had choir performances.  Before the interval we had a performance from the choir local to the venue called Urban Choir.  They are a gospel-style choir run by Christians for any singers at all - Christian or otherwise. After the interval Joyful Noise sang 'Like Eagles' and 'Love can build a bridge' with Sarah and Christine as soloists.

It was fantastic having the choirs there, particularly when Joyful Noise were able to join in with some of Devon's solo items.  Devon shared quite a bit of his story, and the audience were really blessed by the evening.  It was also wonderful to see that Urban Choir stayed to watch the whole of the second half - even those that aren't Christians.  It was a wonderful opportunity to share the Gospel.

Thanks so much Sarah for inviting us, and well done Devon once again!

Rehearsal time

As may have been mentioned before on the blog, CMM are beginning to work a bit differently when it comes to teams and musicals.  In the past when a new musical is launched, a team of soloists, understudies, dancers and instrumentalists rehearse over 6 or 7 months ready for the premiere and 50 or so tour dates.

With Two Sisters and a Funeral, the emphasis will be different - there won't be dance (at all venues) or full-costumed drama - instead we will hold a 'concert version' with choir, narration and soloists.  This gives us scope to use lots of different soloists and give plenty of people chance to perform.

On Tuesday 11th January we had a gathering of quite a few of our regular soloists - about 20 of us met and sang through the musical together.  Roger also shared a bit of his vision for the musical, which was great to hear.

At the same time in the same building, the CMM choir were meeting for the first time since Christmas.  It was just a little social gathering, but a lovely opportunity for Annie to meet with the group as their new conductor.  They shared food and fellowship together, and then half way through the evening the Two Sisters soloists came and joined them and sang 'O the deep deep love of Jesus' - with a planned spontaneous happening at the end!

It is always lovely to meet with the CMM choir and give them a preview of what is to come - they are wonderful supporters.