Sound Waves at the heart of the community

It’s been quite a year for Sound Waves Community Choir since Debbie Warren was appointed as resident musical director – following a period with various guest musical directors, each concentrating on a particular genre, hers is a new post created in order to build and develop the choir and create more local performance opportunities. Debbie writes about the choir’s seasonal performances and takes us on a whistle-stop tour through a successful year.

As the end of the year approaches, Sound Waves is busier than ever – already in December it has performed at Mallydams RSPCA, and next up is the Seaview Carol Concert on Saturday 10th (5pm in St John the Evangelist Church, Brittany Road, St Leonards).

On Friday 16th we’ll be making our own festive offering, Winter & Wassail, a festival of medieval songs and carols at All Saints Church (All Saints Street, Hastings). With our unique blend of a cappella voices, we will be singing traditional carols and wassailing songs as well as recreating medieval Christmas traditions, some of which are still popular today.

Medieval festival

We will be joined by recorder group the Fipple Consort, and Liam Genockey – the drummer with Steeleye Span and many others – will be accompanying some of the songs on medieval drum. All the more fitting then that we will be
performing the original Steeleye Span arrangement of Gaudete during the
programme.

In the interval there will a chance to try some actual wassail made from a traditional recipe! Doors will open at 7pm for a 7.30pm start and entrance is free of charge. There will be a collection for Hastings charity Counselling Plus.

Supporting local charities

Sound Waves likes to support local charities through music – since it was set up in 2009, the choir has raised over £12,000 for local charities.

We were therefore delighted to be part of Beatles Day at the White Rock Theatre in April, an event which raised £25,000 for Macmillan Cancer Support.

Later that month we were thrilled to be chosen as the backing choir for Blake on the Hastings leg of their UK tour. A very exciting evening at the White Rock Theatre followed, with the choir joining Blake for five of their songs.

To finish the Easter term Sound Waves went to the movies with a concert at the Kino-Teatr in St Leonards. Well-known songs and music from popular films filled the auditorium accompanied by clips from the films. This was in aid of two charities, the Snowflake Project and Friary Gardeners.

During the summer, Sound Waves performed at Butler’s Gap during the Old Town Carnival week, collecting money for the Hastings Lifeboat. We were also rehearsing in earnest for Clash!, part of the ROOT 1066 festival celebrating 950 years since the Battle of Hastings.

For Clash! seven local choirs joined forces with poets and composers to perform newly commissioned works inspired by the Bayeux Tapestry. The performances at Sussex Coast College in September were very well received with the composers and poets in attendance.

In October Sound Waves was one of 20 local choirs taking part in the Big Sing in aid of St Michael’s Hospice. The sponsored choral singathon raised several thousand pounds for the hospice.

 

For more information about the choir please visit our website. Sound Waves always welcomes new members and there are no auditions to join. The next session starts in January 2017.

See a trailer of WINTER & WASSAIL here.

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