Friday 21 December 2012

Stargazing in Eccleshall

On Sunday 2nd December, Helen travelled to Eccleshall (Staffs, not Sheffield) to lead an afternoon learning and then performing the musical Stargazers with the Saints Alive singers at the parish church.

She was greeted by with a wonderful lunch of jacket potatoes and fillings, and it was lovely to share the meal with the whole choir and band.  The day had been organised by Hazel Bradshaw, who has often had Annie come to lead musicals in days on other occasions.

There were about 30 in the choir, and they were accompanied by a wonderful little band consisting of piano, guitar, violin, cello, flute, clarinet and saxophone.  Helen was supported by 4 CMM team members  - Jonathan, who sang and also played guitar, and Richard, Carolynn and Yvette, when they eventually arrived after realising which Eccleshall they should be travelling to!

The rehearsal time went really well - Helen was a bit worried at the midway break as only the easier half of the musical had been covered, but in the second rehearsal the choir stepped up a notch and learnt the music very quickly.

The performance was very special, as it took place as part of a Christingle service, led by the vicar James.  The musical performance came first, and then the christingle ceremony concluded the service beautifully.  Because the events coincided there was a lovely large audience, including lots of children, which was great.  It was a really poignant moment when the lights were dimmed, and everyone sang a short song together.

Thanks so much to Hazel for her organisation.  A lovely day was had by all.

Thursday 20 December 2012

Shepherds and an orchestra


On Saturday 1st December, the CMM Christmas season properly got underway with a special musical in a day.  The call went out for instrumentalists to come and try out Annie's new orchestration, and singers to come and join in.  We were honoured to have singers and players from far and wide come and join us, and we had a wonderful day making music together.

Annie led the orchestra, helped by Phil on piano.  Every part was covered, including some extras that Annie wrote in the weeks leading up to the event.  We had:
3 first violins
2 second violins
1 viola
3 cellos
1 double bass
2 oboes
1 bassoon
2 recorders
5 flutes
2 clarinets
2 trumpets
1 cornet
2 french horns
1 trombone
3 guitarists
3 percussionists

The choir was also huge, and trained by Helen.  Many of the choir knew the musical beforehand, but they still worked really hard to get through from the beginning to the end.

There were also some soloists:
Richard - Joseph
Kathryn - Mary (it was her first event with us)
Ann - Naomi
Helen - Hannah
Megan - Shem and Deborah (her sister Bryony was ill, so Megan had to work extra hard!)
Devon - Levi

After working very hard all day, the audience began to arrive ready for the 5pm production.  The audience only just squeezed into the Chancel area of the church, and it was wonderful to have such a full church filled with music.  Roger (after spending much of the day filming and taking photographs) introduced the evening, and then Annie took over to conduct the performance.

Thank you so much to everyone that came to take part.  We hope it was a great way to kick off advent for all involved.  Thank you also to those that helped on the bookstall and with the tea & coffee etc.














Tuesday 18 December 2012

Your performances

It is the time of year where we hear from lots of you about how your performances have gone.  Here are a few bits and pieces of your comments:

This is from Paul at South Yardley, following our visit for Two Sisters:


One more story I need to share with everyone, especially as it ties in nicely with what Roger said at the Sunday service!
Last week I had a phone call from a lady asking for a couple of tickets, I said I'd deliver them and went over the following day. She was out so I came away and went back later on. She was still out and the phone just went through to the answering machine. I put the tickets in an envelope, scrawled a message saying she could pay for them at the show and left it at that.  This morning she phoned to say thank for leaving the tickets, she did turn up and she paid on arrival.
She then went on to say that she didn't normally go to such things and didn't expect much. At this point I began to wonder why she'd shown any interest in the first place! She also said that she'd found Church music to be so dull and boring and I was even more confused as to why she'd decided to come along! Then she said she'd had such a wonderful time, the lights, the music, the costumes, the songs, the drama etc - it was something she never expected to see and she'd had the most amazing experience.
It's often said that the Lord works in mysterious ways (in fact I find them to be completely bewildering at times!) but if we managed to reach out and make contact with this lady on so many levels then I think we all did a splendid job!
Cheers and thank you all again.
Paul


We had another email from the singers at South Yardley a few weeks later, as they went on to perform a different musical, Simeon, somewhere else:


I thought you might like to know that we’ve been very busy since Two Sisters; about two years ago I was chatting to Brian, the father of a chap I worked with, who looks after The Peoples Mission Hall, Netherton. Many moons ago they presented some of Roger’s early works, even performing at Dudley Town Hall, but with a changing congregation, the productions haven’t continued. Brian was keen to try and regenerate the idea and asked if the In Crowd Singers would be able to visit and present one of the musicals. Of course it all took ages to set up and find mutually convenient dates but at long last on Saturday December 1st a coach load of In Crowd Singers journeyed to Netherton to present Simeon which we’d performed the previous year at Digbeth.
A huge sign greeted us and we were well looked after with refreshments during the afternoon and after the show. Apart from Simeon we sang some Christmas songs and a few carols which all helped to get their (and our!)  Advent season off to a great start. The whole evening was very well received and, certainly a first for us, we were asked to do an encore – song number 2, ‘Why Should I be So Favoured’! Reactions afterwards from the congregation were superb, warm and friendly people who, as with Two Sisters, had all enjoyed the evening on many different levels. They took a collection which was handed to us and which we’ve sent on to our chosen charities. We’ve been invited back to Netherton next year and they’ll be arranging an expedition of people to come to Birmingham to see our next production.
 As a result of all this, we’re putting the whole evening on again this Saturday at St.Cyprian Hay Mills, Simeon, songs and carols , not sure if we’ll be asked for an encore this time but at least we know people will have a great evening!!
It’s said that music is a very powerful force, I think we’re only just beginning to realise how powerful that force is so please send our thanks to Roger & Co for writing such amazing material.


We have also heard briefly from The East Coast Churches Choir, who performed Rock at the Spa Theatre in Scarborough - a very big venue!  Roger went to visit them to see how their rehearsals were going.


Please could you let Roger know that the ROCK musical was well received when performed in the local theatre. We had a dress rehearsal on the Tuesday with the Spa Theatre staff who sorted out the sound and the lighting. This gave the show an added dimension. We ended up with a 12 piece band which worked very well.
The comments we received were most encouraging. The scene with Suzanna singing "Just as I am" was most moving. We had a good number of non-Christians in the audience on both nights and speaking with some of them afterwards they were most moved by the message of the musical.


We were also sent some wonderful pictures from Stokesley, in the North East.  They performed While Shepherds Watched, as it was the 25th anniversary of their original performances.  This is what they had to say:



Hope your WSW at the weekend is as well received as ours was!! A Choir of approx.70 sang to an audience of over a hundred and a very happy, but thought provoking time was had by all.
Incidentally, all the soloists were the original ones who sang in our own productions at Stokesley following your Middlesbrough Town Hall one with the exception of "Levi" who sadly has since died.




Thank you so much to everyone - keep us informed of what you are up to - we love to hear from you!



Thursday 13 December 2012

Renewal Day

For the last couple of years CMM have been holding renewal evenings in collaboration with Christ Church, Burney Lane and their vicar Peter Smith.  For one Sunday each year we have extended the renewal evenings to fill a complete day, and invited a speaker to take the morning service, lead a workshop in the afternoon and then speak at the renewal celebration in the evening.  This year the speaker was Martin Cavender from ReSource, a renewal organisation in the Anglican Church.

Martin's theme was 'Apprentices to the Holy Spirit', which was a fascinating subject, and revolved around some of the topics covered in Alison Morgan's book 'Doing what Jesus did'.

It was a brilliant day, and a lot of people received ministry and were blessed.

If you'd like to know a little bit more about the work of Martin and ReSource, have a look at their website:
http://www.resource-arm.net/


Monday 10 December 2012

The Inn Crowd in Alcester

Roger and Pat
On Saturday 24th November Roger and Helen travelled the short distance down the road to Alcester to the minster for a special 'Inn Crowd' day.  The day had been organised by Pat Newbold, and her daughter Katie, who is a CMM recording regular and worked in the office for a couple of years.  Katie sang the Innkeeper's Wife role on the CD and also trained the choir for this event.

The other team members for the day were Barrie and Simon - Barrie taking the role of Sam, the innkeeper, and Simon playing the part of Joseph.  Katie had also arranged for there to be a group of children singing the shepherds part, as well as three 'wise men'!

The three wise men
After some worries about turnout, the choir was a lovely size, and made up of about 30 people from a number of different churches in the benefice.  The choir had learnt the musical really well, particularly on so few rehearsals.  It was so wonderful to see people sharing with each other from across the different churches.  We were also helped amazingly by Katie's brother John, who sorted out the sound for us all - having good monitors for the backing track is always a huge relief!
The team, including Katie's son Joe

The performance was really well attended - there were very few seats left empty that weren't behind a pillar, and the audience seemed to enjoy themselves.

A musical is such a wonderful way of drawing a community together and sharing the gospel.  Well done to Pat for all her hard work - it certainly paid off.