Saturday 16 April 2011
We were delighted to get through to the Top Choir of Kent final. The competition was organised by the Rotary Club in Canterbury and the final was held in the Shirley Hall in Kings School, Canterbury.
The final was of an excellent standard with choirs from a variety of genres. It’s so hard to compare choral groups with community choirs, baroque with barbershop. All styles were represented. The only requirement was that the choir be unaccompanied.
There was no backstage available to us, so we had to reach the stage by walking through the middle of the audience. This was a bit daunting but it boosted the adrenalin levels.
After a lovely MC introduction we started with Lazy Day. We’re often told about how valuable it is to energise our performance. We certainly reaped the benefit of this as we could feel the audience warm to us. It changed to a magical still as we sang the beautiful ballad Shangri-la. By the time we finished with our version of Somebody To Love they were all rocking with us. It was a great feeling.
After much deliberation, the head judge came back to the stage to announce the results. The winner is ………VIVA ACAPPELLA! I’m afraid we reverted to stereotypical female behaviour – we all screamed. There was laughter and a few tears. It was very exciting.
The icing on the cake was that so many people came up to congratulate us. People we didn’t know. They just wanted to tell us how much they’d enjoyed it. Fabulous.