2009-2010

This Season?
Two Rock Stars - ROBERT PLANT & Beth NIELSEN CHAPMAN;
Two Tours - York & Madrid;
Two Special Venues; The Legendary ABBEY ROAD & The O2 Arena;
A DOUBLE HELPING of both Masses & Madrigals;
Two Specials - RAISA GORBACHEV Foundation & STAR WARS
We ARE The Music Makers - “NOT HALF!”

  • ELGAR’S THE MUSIC MAKERS IN St. Martin-in-the-Fields

  • MESSIAH in The Royal Festival Hall - COSTUMED!

  • A MEDIEVAL CHRISTMAS - Olde Worlde Carols

  • ABBEY ROAD with ROBERT PLANT & BETH NIELSEN-CHAPMAN for Bob Harris’s Sound & Vision Charity

  • “STAR WARS in CONCERT” at the O2 ARENA

  • Tour to SPAIN Concerts in SEGOVIA and MADRID

  • Mixing with the stars at HAMPTON COURT PALACE

  • MADRIGALI ELEMENTALI - Modern Meets Medieval

Season Highlights:

Choir Membership 2009-2010

CONCERTS

Thursday OCTOBER 22nd 2009

THE MUSIC MAKERS

ST. MARTIN-IN-THE-FIELDS

YORK TOUR

OCTOBER 23rd - 25th 2009

YORK

Friday DECEMBER 4th 2009

MESSIAH by CANDLELIGHT

ROYAL FESTIVAL HALL

Thursday DECEMBER 17th 2009

A MEDIEAVAL CHRISTMAS

ST. PETER’S, EATON SQUARE

Thursday FEBRUARY 25th 2010

SOUND & VISION

ABBEY ROAD

Rehearsal at Greycoats

Auction Items

DD Note:This concert was a charity concert tribute to The Beatles, with an auction of appropriate memorabilia. and 4 famous singers each doing two songs. Robert Plant had discovered me on recommendation from Beth, who had played him my arrangement of her Color of Roses. He had been stunned and asked for two arrangements. One was Goodnight and the attached video shows what fun we had at the first rehearsal, especially since he had never worked with a choir before. Beth had asked me to arrange "How we Love” for her second song. I was asked to write a grand finale for everyone. Since it was George Harrison’s birthday My Sweet Lord was the obvious choice. To approximate the opening guitar strumming I took the words of the Hindu mantra from the original recording and made them into a complex cross rhythm chant for the choir. The rest of the song is simple and repetitive and ideal to give everyone a solo and then all join in the end. However two stars did not make the rehearsal and one had not looked at the music at all, just improvised loudly, came in wrong several times and spoiled the whole performance! Pity really.

Choir Reactions to Abbey Road Concert

  • David, it really was an awesome evening all round. I can't stop smiling every time I think about it and the music is still going round and round in my head. Judging by the smile on Robert Plant's face on the YouTube videos, I think he was enjoying himself too. Just a shame that the sound is not better. I thought Farmer in the City was incredible but all your arrangements were excellent. It was great to perform Colour of Roses again too. It seems strange that it is all over now but probably more so for you as you put so much time and work into it. I hope you enjoyed the party afterwards and met some good people. Fingers crossed that it leads on to more weird and wonderful things. Very, very well done. See you Wednesday.

    Lizann Peppard

  • I hope you have recovered from all the excitement of Thursday. I couldn't sleep for a long time and was still on a high on Friday and have had 24 hours of feeling very very tired. Can't imagine how you feel! It was such a brilliant event to take part in - thank you so much for making all of that happen. I'll never forget it. I'm dying to know what was said after the event. It would be great to catch up about it if you've any time tomorrow. Speak soon hopefully.

    Fiona Tong

  • Hi David, I just wanted to say a huge thank you to you for making last night part of my life. I never thought I would be doing anything like this! I know that it's your fantastic arrangements that got us to that stage in Abbey Road - I know the choir sang phenomenally well last night, but mostly that's down to the fact that we just love singing the notes (and the rhythms!) you have given us. I also know how hard you have been working in a short space of time to get those arrangements done, but they are perfect. Thank you so much

    Sarah Smith

  • I just wanted to say a personal thanks for all your hard work in making last night happen, and for pulling together such a superb experience. It was a real privilege to sing there and I loved every minute - I've been buzzing all morning. I thought your arrangements rocked, by the way - even if the last one rocked just a tiny bit more than we intended! Oh well, that's rock and roll, I guess!

    Angela Partington

  • I hear it was a hugely successful event last night. I don't know if Lizann told you this but, at the rehearsal, Bob Harris said to me "I don't know how we are going to top this next year! Last year we had Paul Weller with a string quartet which we thought was pushing the boundaries but this is extraordinary!" I think you blew them away and I'm sure it will lead to even greater things. Your choral arrangements are wonderful and, given that you have the wonderful Oriana to perform them as only they could, that's what made the event "extraordinary". I complimented Beth on her vocal performance at the rehearsal and she said "Thanks - but it's really David's arrangements that are making it sound so beautiful". Congratulations.

    John Peppart

  • The performance of the choir was due in no small part to your energizing and inspirational leadership. Not to mention those incredible arrangements! Thanks for all your hard work.

    Trevor Heywood

  • Thank you so much for all your energy, enthusiasm and hard work for the choir. I feel very privileged to be a member - it's very exciting! I think the music you pick is beautiful and I enjoy learning each new piece. The pace of learning is never stale. Thank you for all the work you put in for the Robert Plant Concert. I had a fantastic time and was proud to be there and proud of the choir. I kept having to pinch myself to check it was really happening! I particularaly liked the Farmer in the City arrangement and your direction (to sustain or increase the volume on notes - so spooky!)

    Clem Sutters

Saturday 13th MARCH 2010

MASSES & MASSES

ST. ANDREW, HOLBORN

FRANK MARTIN
MESSE á 8 for DOUBLE CHOIR

KENNETH LEIGHTON
MASS Op. 44 for DOUBLE CHOIR

STAR WARS: IN CONCERT

Saturday APRIL 3rd 2010

O2 ARENA, LONDON

Anthony Daniels - C3PO

Family Fans with R2D2

Anthony Daniels comes to visit London Oriana Men

Saturday APRIL 24th 2010

BRAHMS, GARDNER, PUCCINI

ST. JOHN’S, SMITH SQUARE

MAY 28th - 31st 2010

SPANISH TOUR

MADRID & SEGOVIA

San Juan de los Caballeros, SEGOVIA

Iglesia de San Sebástian, MADRID

The MUSIC

DD Note:This was a very strong tour choir, and we are fortunate to have a recording. However the levels were too high to cope with the power of these 50 singers and the following two Whitacre favourites suffer distortion when loud. I have included them only because I am proud of the choir's acheivement in these two magical works.

The Four “F”s of Touring!

FORFEITS

FUN

FRIENDS

& FOOD

Saturday JUNE 5th 2010

RAISA GORBACHEV FOUNDATION

HAMPTON COURT PALACE

DD Note:At this concert we found ourselves surrounded by all sorts of celebrities, including Mikael Gorbachev. When we arrived, Bon Jovi was rehearsing and there are pictures of us with Vanessa Redgrave, who, when we started singing, was overheard saying; “Gosh, a real choir!”. The gutter press had a field day with their star spotters and fashion photographers.

Friday JUNE 25th 2010

MADRIGALI ELEMENTI

SOUTHWARK CATHEDRAL

EARTH

WATER

FIRE

AIR

SEASON REPERTOIRE SPREAD

London Oriana Choir Archive