Thursday, December 5th and Friday December 6th, 2013
I recently discovered the Riyadh Choral Society and in an attempt to find a few more normal things to do I jumped at the chance to check them out and join the group. The Choral Society has been going strong for about 39 years (they will celebrate their 40th anniversary next year) and as I joined as they were getting ready for their annual Christmas concert.
It's been a while since I've done any organised singing, and it certainly is taking me a bit of time to get my ear back. I can't read music as easily has I had in the past (but I did buy a keyboard so I can do some more practising at home) and my vocal range is not what it used to be but I really am happy to be back involved in music. I'm singing alto in the choir (my soprano days are long behind me) which is fun as it usually is the more challenging and interesting part of the choir. I faced an additional challenge though in that we sang a lot of songs that you wouldn't normally hear in North America, and the ones I did know, we sang British arrangements so it was a lot of quick learning for me.
We put on 3 concerts, including an afternoon show targeted at the kids. I unfortunately had to miss the afternoon concert to attend a video-conference at work (Mohammed the guy who covers me was on leave so I had to go. The video-conference went very well and a young boy had a very successful surgery as a result so I was happy about that.) We tried to get some video of the show but the camera didn't seem to do it's job but here are a few pictures.
A look at the set-up before too many audience members arrived.
My friend Wendy managed to snap this picture of me. I'm in the back row and Susie was in the way.
That's Susie, our musical director.
All dressed in black wearing red and gold ties and scarves. A good looking group we were.......and turns out we sound pretty good too.
So glad I found RCS. We are taking a break now for the holidays but come January we will be back at it preparing for our Spring concert. Hopefully we can get some video. To celebrate 40 years, we will be performing "our greatest hits". Haven't seen the set list just yet but I hope it will mean learning a few new songs.
Julie
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