November & December

Looking forward to Christmas

Throughout November, St Giles' Choir and the Camberwell Community Choir have been working on Christmas Carol Singing.

Christmas seems to be getting earlier every year, and although you can hear Christmas carols and songs in just about every supermarket from December 1st (or earlier), there's nothing quite like hearing Christmas music live.

That's why the Community Choir are looking forward to performing carols all around Camberwell on Tuesday 13th December. They'll be performing at the bus stops on the green, the Tiger Pub, Butterfly Walk and at the Crooked Well pub. If you're out and about in Camberwell that night you'll be sure to catch them!

Similarly St Giles' Choir will be busy from Sunday 18th December at 6.30pm performing at the 9 lessons and carols festival. The carols will be both old and new and together with candles - it should be a memorable occasion.

Everyone at St Giles' wishes you a very Happy Christmas! 

September & October

Ghostly goings on at St Giles!

Although churches in the UK do not normally celebrate All Hallows Eve - or 'Halloween', churches in the USA have been celebrating it for many years by staging scary organ music concerts!

The whole point is to celebrate the versatility of the instrument rather than the fright factor of Halloween. But if the music scares you a little bit - so much the better!

So on the 31st of October, the church heard a wide variety of organ music which went down a 'treat' with the audience. The scary music quiz was also a success and this is an event we will hope to repeat in the future!

August

Singing at Morland Camp 

At the beginning of August, many members of St Giles' Choir attended the Morland Chorister Camp in Cumbria. St Giles has been sponsoring the trip for nearly 20 years - and as usual, everyone had a great time!

The aim of the camp is to bring young church choir members together from all over the country to sing and learn new music together. Activities include a visit to Carlisle Cathedral to sing Evensong, staging a musical production and of course having fun! We're very pleased that this fantastic opportunity is available to our choristers and we hope to carry on supporting Morland Camp for a long time to come.

On the 4th of September, the choir are looking forward to celebrating the feast day of St Giles. This year, there's going to be a barbecue after the Sunday service and cricket / football matches - choir v. congregation... Bring it on!

June & July

More medals for St Giles' Choir

Although many of our choristers have had school exams throughout June and July, all our choristers have found time to prepare for and take an RSCM 'Voice for life' exam.

Similar to music grade exams, the Voice for Life programme teaches people interested in singing how to read and understand music, but it also encourages choristers how to develop and use their voice confidently. There are many levels and when each level is completed a different coloured medal is awarded.

Despite St Giles' Choir only signing up to the programme two years ago we now have eight red level choristers, 5 dark blue level and six light blue level. It's a fantastic achievement and we hope some choristers will achieve the final yellow medal soon.

May

A concert series to remember

St Giles' hosted our second annual concert series throughout May.

The aim of our series is to provide people in the local area with a wide variety of music which can be enjoyed in a beautiful environment. The concerts last just under an hour and provide an alternative after work to the grander concerts which can be heard in the city.

This year we were lucky to be treated to some outstanding solo performances by Sarah Draper, David Malusa and Chris Serjeant as well as some fine group performances by the Lucia Viola Duo and the Valentine Trio.

If you were able to attend, we hope you enjoyed the performances enough to return when we organise our next series in 2012. The series can only survive if enough people attend so we would appreciate it very much if you can tell friends and family about us.

One of the things musicians tell us constantly when performing at St Giles is the fact that the building is a really special place to perform. We hope you agree that St Giles is a special place to hear live music and that you will come back for more!

March & April

Celebrating Musical Success

St Giles' choir were celebrating a fantastic performance at Croydon music festival at the start of April. Coming second in their class, the choir performed two very difficult pieces which were warmly received by the audience. The choir sang one of the pieces ('You raise me up') again at a sunday service in church leaving many of the congregation genuinely moved.  

As well as performing at the festival, the choir took part in a flashmob! These musical performances were planned by the SE5 forum to generate a public interest in singing. This has enabled the formation of Camberwell Community Choir, a free choir open to anyone regardless of musical ability. The choir meets every Tuesday evening at 7.30pm in the crypt underneath St Giles. Please do come along if you can!

Easter is always a busy and exciting time for people which means that it's not always possible to reflect on the Easter story and what it means for us today. On Palm Sunday (17th April), Ashley Valentine and Matt Duncan are going to perform music which will hopefully enable people to relax and contemplate the Easter message as Holy Week begins. This mini-recital will start at 4pm and last around 45 minutes; poetry and other texts will be available to read as the music is being performed.

January & February 2011

Happy New Year!

The end of 2010 was a busy time for everyone involved in music at St Giles. As well as the usual Christmas services, the choir and musicians performed carols at Sainsbury's supermarket inEast Dulwichraising a fantastic £165 in just under an hour for charity. Luci Briginshaw sang beautifully as always for us in a concert featuring music by Mozart and Delibes. And Bishop Christopher's visit was a success - the choir performing Cesar Frank's Panis Angelicus on that occasion.

2011 is sure to be equally as busy as 2010! The jazz venue underneath St Giles have a great line up for the start of the year - you can find more about these gigs by clicking here.

St Giles' choir is also going to busy - their first event of the year is singing at the Royal Albert Hall! The choir will be singing two songs for a fundraising event and will be a fantastic experience for everyone.

We are also planning our May concert series - if you would like to get involved in this, please do get in touch.