This will be a beautiful day of singing and swimming and we’ll all learn a lot. We’re fortunate to have some incredible people coming and I am so excited for you to work with them!

First we have the wonderful Chalene Scott, who has a Bachelor’s in Performing Arts but more importantly, has been doing theatre for almost all her life. She has done musical direction for many musicals, as well as devised movement and theatre pieces, and is excited to bring a tiny bit of theatricality to your day. She’ll be leading a physical warm-up to start us off.

Next we have Maaike Christie-Beekman, who will be doing a vocal coaching session with us. Maaike is a trained singer who has been leading choral workshops for years and is very well-known in the Wellington choral scene. She’s an expert in helping choirs find their best sound, and I’m absolutely thrilled that she’ll be working with us.

Jonathan Berkahn needs no introduction – we all know he’s a genius – and he’ll be running a very useful session on sight-singing.

After that, Ingrid will introduce us to some exciting 2020 repertoire.

To end the afternoon, Tessa Dalgety-Evans will lead our Waiata Reo Māori session. Tessa studies Music (cello performance), Māori Studies (reo Māori), Linguistics and English at the University of Otago. She has performance experience in kapa haka rōpū, choirs, orchestras and choral conducting.

Here’s the schedule for the day:

• Coffee and tea from 9:30
• Please arrive no later than 9:50
• 10:00 Welcome
• 15-20 minutes of physical warmups, and some rhythmic exercises led by Chalene Scott
• 10:30 – 12:00 Vocal coaching led by Maaike Christie-Beekman
• 12:00 – 1:00 Lunch and SWIMMING
• 1:00 – 1:30 Sightsinging workshop led by Jonathan Berkahn
• 1:30 – 2:30 Exciting 2020 repertoire, led by Ingrid
• 2:30 – 3:00 Afternoon tea
• 3:00 – 3:45/4:00 Waiata Reo Māori workshop led by Tessa Dalgety-Evans

With Maaike, you’ll be singing the Duruflé Ubi Caritas (a familiar piece in our repertoire) and Jonathan’s Pied Beauty, which we did in our August concert.

Email Philip Garside bookspgpl@gmail.com and he will email you PDF copies of both pieces so you can remind yourself how they go/learn your part.

The less you’re worried about notes, the more you can think about diction and vocal technique with Maaike. However, there’s no need to print the music to bring to the workshop – we’ll have everything there for you. Here’s a link to the Duruflé: https://youtu.be/l1BTWCpEFRQ

Here’s all you need to bring:

• Your glorious self (and any friends you like – it’s open to everyone)
• $15 cash
• A packed lunch
• A soft pencil and eraser
• A swimsuit and towel if you’d like to swim at lunch