York Minster 2017
Happy Wednesday good readers! As the start of the Lent term approaches the songbirds of the Pembroke Choir have already been exercising their vocal chords in the beautiful York Minster where we sang last weekend to mark the start of Epiphany.
Friday started early for our choristers, as trains were sleepily boarded to get to the Minster for our afternoon rehearsal.
Looking every inch the locals (!) as we hauled our suitcases through the Minster, we couldn’t help but notice how the Cathedral was rather bigger than we are used to back at college! (And almost as beautiful). Eventually we managed to find our way to the Camera Cantorum where Anna Lapwood (our Director of Music) put us through our paces in preparation for the musical mayhem of the next few days.
No room at the (Premier) Inn?
Saturday dawned, (rather more painfully for some than others) and the choir emerged in search of sustenance for all the singing ahead.
‘You’ve got to think about pancakes. If I'm having a pancake, I want you to present it to me on a plate, not throw it on the floor’ - AL
A hard day of rehearsal finished the choir headed for an Italian where a hearty supply of dough balls and calzones raised the spirits, preparing us for the 8.45am Sunday rehearsal which was rapidly approaching.
He hath filled the hungry with good things
After a long lunch break where the choir ventured out to indulge in a spot of tourism, our last rehearsal and Evensong of the tour took place, featuring Dyson’s canticles in D and Jackson’s Noel Nouvelet.
5 services, 14 hours of singing and several Spoons trips later, magnified and exulted to oblivion we headed out for a celebratory cocktail before departure. Finding a bar big enough to squeeze in all our luggage we even launched into a gloriously harmonised chorus of Happy Birthday for one of our Basses, Dan, to the stunned surprise and confusion of fellow Sunday night bar attendants.
A hundred thanks to everyone who helped organise the tour, participated and came and supported us in York; it was our honour to perform in such a beautiful place. Our next tour is Zambia in September, but for now, it’s back to Cambridge.
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