Children’s Christmas Choirs
The fairy lights are sparkling, the stage is set, the music is ready…so where is my choir? I suppose I have got 2 minutes to go before 4pm and we did say meet at the stage in the playground then. Ah, here they come, laden with teddies and sweet jars already purchased from the fair.
Mums and Dads quickly hurry their children onto the stage and, amazingly, I suddenly have a choir. Yes, 4 rows of children, all standing, expectantly, waiting for me to raise my arms and bring them in. The miracle has happened. I have forty children all ready to sing, and looking really happy about it!
It’s the Colmore Infant and Colmore Junior schools Christmas Fair and the choirs have been asked to sing. Part of my work for Services For Education is to conduct choirs in the schools I work in and I am often asked to be involved in the schools’ events.
We start with a beautiful song about friendship. The backing is a bit loud for the first soloist (mental note to self — get mikes next time) but then the choir comes in and I’m pleased at the sound. Singing outside was a bit of an experiment and I had wondered if they would be loud enough. But yes, they rise to the challenge of filling the skies with their music and the playground is filled with their young voices.
The second song starts well, until disaster strikes. The portable speaker begins to run out of stored charge and the backing gets softer, and softer, and softer. My heart sinks. I have six more songs to go and a large audience. They’ve worked so hard over the last few weeks giving up precious lunch time to come and sing. What do I do?
We keep going and the song becomes a beautiful example of a capella singing (shame we didn’t work on the harmonies. That would have been impressive).
However, I had thought to bring a small, portable Bose speaker with me for emergencies. If only I had thought to sync the bluetooth beforehand I would have look really prepared. As it was, we lost something of the atmosphere as I faffed around trying to get my iPad recognised.
And then we were in business again, and the children, amazingly, were right with me again, singing as well as before and with the added focus of having to listen extra hard to the accompaniment. I was so proud of them! They sang with enthusiasm and expertise, remembering the parts we had worked at in our short rehearsals together. The parents obviously enjoyed seeing them sing and the loud applause was a fitting reward.
As the first choir left the stage, high from their success, my second choir jumped on. And I do mean jump. Thirty infant kids don’t walk, it seems. They dance, bounce and hop, especially when they are excited.
And excited they certainly were. I felt my smile grow into an outright chuckle as I watched them get ready to sing for the first time on the outdoor stage.
Their performance was quite different from the juniors. Whereas the juniors had a beautiful tone and performance presence, these young singers had an uncontainable energy and joy that was infectious. Not for the first time I found myself thinking that I was so lucky to have this job that makes me feel so happy! You cannot stand in front of thirty kids bubbling over with the joy of the moment and not feel the same sense yourself. What a privilege! And I get a work-out thrown in as the songs are accompanied with actions that feel like a keep fit session. So good for everyone at so many levels!
Thirty minutes went by in a flash and I felt quite sad when it concluded. The sessions rehearsing for performances are hard work, but the event itself makes it worth it. We’ll perform these songs once more to an audience and then we begin again with new repertoire. I’m already thinking about Easter. We’ve set the bar quite high …