There were no obvious musical high points to 2011 but a lot of things I’d wanted to do for a while actually happened. I sang in Leicester Cathedral and Wakefield Cathedral; this means that Bradford Cathedral is the only Church of England Cathedral I have yet to perform in! I also sang for the first time in St. David’s Cathedral. I performed Rachmaninov’s Vespers complete for the first time. I sang Verdi’s Requiem which I hadn’t done for many years, in a moving 9/11 anniversary concert. Other Cathedral singing seemed to be mostly in Bristol, though I visited Guildford with the Erleigh Cantors. Concert-going was mostly confined to Bath, though I did hear a Bruckner symphony (another first) at a Prom.
Some resolutions for 2012:
a) Obviously, to sing in Bradford Cathedral. I can really concentrate my efforts on this one, especially as the Cathedral now has a website, which it didn’t for a long time.
b) To try to get included in the Lord Mayor’s Chapel Singers, a choir which uses deps from the Chapel’s list. I’ve been on this list for ages, so I’ll keep asking about the Singers.
c) To expand my choral contacts in Bath. For example, by being used again in A Handful of Singers. (Actually, just getting acknowledged by members of the choir would be a start!) And I’ve been on a ‘waiting list for auditions’ for the Paragon Singers for longer than I care to think about. (If it’s all right to put me on a list and leave me there, it’s all right for me to write of it in public!)
d) To do some pieces from my wishlist. I’ve rather lost track of what’s on the wishlist these days, though I posted about Byrd’s Great Service recently. And there are likely to be pieces whose greatness I’ll only realise once I’ve sung them.