It's the beginning of another academic year here at Royal Holloway and the choir have already hit the ground running. Hear about the choir's first weekend together from new first-year choral scholar, Alice Fines.
"On Thursday, the 17th of September members of the Royal Holloway Choir were welcomed to campus to begin choir camp. The first day included a brief tour of the music department for new scholars, and then a full day of rehearsals. The choir had the chance to learn works, ranging from Byrd’s ‘Ave Verum Corpus’ to Tippett’s ‘Go Down, Moses’. Each year the choir changes, with members graduating and new first years joining. Working on such a variety of repertoire was an excellent opportunity for the choir to learn how to work well with each other and our conductor. To end a very long first day, everyone made their way to the university bar, Crosslands, to spend the evening getting to know each other.
To begin the second day scholars attended induction sessions before heading to the chapel. After lunch, the choir split into 4 ensembles to learn secular and sacred works, including ‘I Got Rhythm’ arranged by Christopher Clapham and ‘Ave Regina Caelorum’ by Victoria. After our last rehearsal senior members of the choir arranged a quiz night to help first years get to know their fellow scholars. The quiz included many categories such as, facts about our conductors and other members of the choir, campus facts, guess the baby picture and many more. The third and fourth days of choir camp were very similar, consisting of many full choir rehearsals in the chapel and ensemble rehearsals to prepare for our workshop. On the last day, each ensemble performed their pieces for our vocal tutor Mark Wilde, who gave us insightful and constructive feedback on how to improve our technique and work well as a smaller ensemble.
As a first year choral scholar, choir camp has been a wonderful experience. Everyone has been incredibly welcoming, allowing myself and the other first years to settle into the choir easily. Choir camp has left me looking forward to the rest of the term and the opportunities ahead." - Alice Fines, Alto Choral Scholar (1st Year)
