Monday 30 November 2015

Greater than Gold in Conwy

Beechwood Court
The day after the premiere, Roger, along with Helen and Sarah travelled to Conwy in North Wales for a Greater than Gold music week.  The venue was Beechwood Court Hotel, which has now sadly closed - we were honoured to be one of the last events in the hotel.

We had a lovely group of 25-30 guests staying at the hotel, as well as a few who travelled in as day visitors.  The team of Roger, Helen and Sarah was supplemented by locals Keith on drums and Deb (Helen's sister) on viola.

Helen working with the choir
It really was a fabulous week.  Helen trained the choir (who were excellent) while Sarah accompanied the rehearsals and helped Helen work with the soloists.  Keith came in each day to play drums for the worship and then for the musical.  It really adds a huge amount to the atmosphere and musicality to be supported by a good drummer.  Deb was able to be present for a full day, and also the performance itself, which was so lovely.

Each morning we had some Bible teaching led by Roger (day 1 and 3) and Helen (day 2).  The themes were all about the Bible: 'The Written Word', 'The Spoken Word' and 'The Living Word'.  On the final morning we took the opportunity to have a good long time of prayer ministry, which was very special.

Mary Jones World
The evenings held a variety of activities, including a special 'Evening with Roger' where he was interviewed by Helen and shared various stories from his life interspersed with songs.

Another highlight included a day trip to the newly-opened 'Mary Jones World' in Bala.  The weather was atrocious, but the centre was absolutely lovely.  Mary's story is fascinating, and it was a real joy to sing to the visitors a couple of the songs from the musical.

The performance itself on the last night of the week was held in the Parish Hall in Conwy.  The hall wasn't the easiest performance location, but the choir coped admirably well and produced an amazing sound.  The audience wasn't huge, but it was quality!  The soloists also did a fabulous job, and Mary Jones narrated the story!

Deb with Keith and Sarah
The choir in rehearsal
Roger leading a song
Mary Jones with Mary Jones!
The choir singing in Mary Jones World
Sarah taking the Mary Jones solo
One of Mary Jones' Bibles
Sarah and Deb playing for the performance
Keith drumming in the Parish Hall
Helen conducting the choir in the Parish Hall
Mary narrating
Dai, a local singer took the role of the Father
Helen playing the kazoo instrumental on her plastic trombone
The choir in rehearsal at the Parish Hall
Helen working hard
The band accompanying the choir

Wednesday 25 November 2015

Barnabas is Go!!!!!

The big news of the CMM Autumn is the launch of our latest musical, Barnabas.  All of the work put in by Roger and Alison (writing), Annie (typesetting and arranging), Helen and Nicky (admin), Tim (sales), Andrew and George (artwork) and all of the soloists, dancers, singers and instrumentalists came to a head on Saturday 19th September for the official launch.

The launch took place at Shirley Methodist Church, a lovely auditorium with the ideal feature that the choir sit at right-angles to the stage, enabling them to watch both Roger and the action on stage at the same time!  Ticket sales had initially been slow, but by the time the premiere came round there were good audiences for both performances.

Some of the soloists in rehearsal
First, the soloists.  It was a treat to have all of the soloists from the recording of Barnabas singing at the premiere - Bill Carpenter - Barnabas, Devon Brown - Saul, Richard Harvey - John Mark, Ann Steer and Yvette Roberts - Rhoda, and Amy Carter and Catherine Sleight - Miriam.  The soloists did an amazing job on relatively little rehearsal time.  They worked hard to memorize both the lyrics and the narrations and sang brilliantly well.

CDM rehearse song 1
Another feature of the premiere were the dancers.  We were honoured to have the dancers from Christian Dance Ministries take part in the premiere - Sally Taylor, Anna Weddell and Ruth Ditch.  They really stole the show with their comedy dance routine to 'Three men in a boat' complete with an inflatable dinghy and umbrella hats.  They also beautifully interpreted the songs 'Like rays of sudden heaven' and 'O my Saviour lifted.'  Sadly the dancers haven't been able to perform at any of the other performances of Barnabas this autumn, but hopefully they can be involved more in 2016.

CMM Choir in action
The choir at the premiere was made up of two groups.  Firstly the CMM choir trained by Annie Routley and Sylvia Whalley sang for much of the musical, but shortness of time between the publishing of the score and the premiere meant that some of the trickier sections were taken by a group of vocalists, many of whom sang the backing vocals on the CD.  These are known as our 'close harmony group' and are CMM associates who are excellent at sight-singing and blending their voices.  It provided a great contrast to have some songs with choruses sung by the large choir, with smaller semi-chorus sections.

The instrumentalists in rehearsal
We also had three instrumentalists at the premiere - Chris McDouall on soprano saxophone, Annie Routley on viola, and Helen Pollard on flute.  Chris King, the recording producer, had produced a special backing track for the occasion, with all of the solo instruments on the CD taken off.  Soprano sax features throughout the musical, and it was lovely to have it played live at the performance.

Mark and Dave on AV
An important mention must go to those behind the scenes - the sound and lighting team led by Mark Hetherington and Dave Lewis, the visuals produced by George Hicks and operated by James Pollard.  The wonderful team on the door and on the bookstall, the local Shirley Methodist church members, and also the team looking after the refreshments for the choir and technicians.

And Roger conducted well too!

We're so excited to have launched this musical on the world.  It has a brilliant message of hearing and obeying God.

Trust and obey for there's no other way
To be happy in Jesus than to trust and obey

Choir, harmony group, soloists and instrumentalists all in one photo!
Roger conducting
'Three men in a boat' in rehearsal
Choir, harmony group and instrumentalists in rehearsal
Ruth and Sally dancing to 'O my Saviour, lifted'
'Three men in a boat' in performance
Sally, Anna and Ruth stealing the show
Anna dancing to 'Like rays of sudden heaven'
Bishop Michael Whinney, who introduced the matinee performance
The soloists in action during the performance, with George's artwork on the screen

Tuesday 24 November 2015

Worship Works in the autumn!

This autumn it has been a privilege to lead several Worship Works events in locations across the country.

The first was in early September at Jump Wesleyan Reform Church, in the Barnsley area.  A number of months ago we led a Worship Works day at Moira Wesleyan Reform Church in the Midlands, and the invitation to go to Jump arose from that event.  Thanks to a good number of volunteers, a nice big CMM team travelled to Jump:
(Left to right: Ellen, Alan, Annie, Roger, Simon, Ann, Felicity, Fran and Cliff)
 It was an immensely powerful day, and we have since received a couple of letters from the church.  One of them contained the following:

"Dear Roger.  I am writing on behalf of the fellowship to express our appreciation of and our gratitude for the presentation of Worship Works at Jump.  On the following day there was no other topic of conversation, everyone was talking about the event and saying how much they had enjoyed it.  Our particular thanks go to you for the manner and style of presentation which was clear and easy to follow, relaxed and engaging.  Your team, too, all played their part admirably, contributing their skills to make a seamless whole, which was greatly appreciated."


Later in September, a team from CMM - having already spent the week in Conwy - led a weekend at Rhos URC.  Keith, a member of the church, has regularly played drums for us, so it was great to visit him at his home church.  The rest of the team were Roger, Helen, Sarah, Carol, Graham and Mary. 
The day attracted a really good number of people from different churches in the area.  It was also lovely to spend some time with the minister from the church, who was hugely encouraging.
We were blessed to have both Carol and her husband Graham on the team.  Graham was there in a leadership role, and it was wonderful to see them both growing in confidence and Gifts of the Spirit.  They have been such a blessing to our ministry since we first met them a couple of years ago.




We then had three Worship Works events in the North of England and Scotland - watch this space for a future blog post on that tour, and then a couple of weeks ago held our last Worship Works of the year at St. Helen's Baptist Church.

We were invited to St Helen's initially by Betty, who along with her friend Eileen, have been regular guests on our holiday music weeks.  Betty is church secretary, and managed to convince them to have us along!

The team once again included Alan on drums, Cliff on bass (along with his wife Julie), Carol on vocals, Helen and Roger.  This time we were also joined by Jane (dance and prayer support) as well as Sharon and her daughter Gemma.

The team was warmly welcomed at the church, particularly by the Pastor, Tim, who is himself a musician.  Unlike previous Worship Works days, this one began after lunch, and culminated in a special evening celebration.  It was great to see so many from the church there, and also others from the surrounding areas - including some long term supporters of CMM.

The following morning we were privileged to help lead the morning service, alongside Tim who led an act of remembrance.  The church were very open to the Spirit and to new material - it was a real joy to share with them.







Huge thanks to all those who invited the team and looked after everyone so well.  We're really thrilled with how Worship Works is blessing so many congregations around the country.