Previous Concerts & Events in 2013 and before:
Click here for Concerts & Events in 2014/2015.
Concerts & Events in 2013
Saturday 7th December 2013, Woven Chords Christmas Concert
Barn Hill Methodist Church
A rousing concert helped Barn Hill Church to raise money for their chosen charities Phakamisa, the Ever Green Care Trust and Youth Outreach Work.
The church looked beautiful decorated with night lights and greenery and the choir’s gorgeous harmonies filled the lofty space delighting the audience for yet another year at Christmas time.
The world music programme included two very moving tributes from South Africa to Nelson Mandela, the whole audience standing for a stirring rendition of N’kosi sikelel ’i Afrika.
Woven Chords has sung at Barn Hill Church for so many Christmases now that it must be regarded as a Stamford festive season tradition. As the audience and singers alike didn’t hide their obvious enjoyment on the night last week – it is most likely that the tradition will continue!
Thank you to all who supported the choir and church by being there.
Sunday 14th July 2013, Woven Chords Summer Concert
Stamford Arts Centre, 6-8pm.
This summer Woven Chords is collaborating with sister world music community choir
from Melton Mowbray, Global Harmony, for a joint concert. Last Easter Global Harmony
organised a joint concert with the two choirs at Oakham School Chapel and both choirs
and audience thoroughly enjoyed the experience. This year it is Woven Chords' turn
and the concert will take place on their home ground - in the Ballroom - where the
choir rehearse.
Each choir will perform separately songs that the other choir doesn't know and then
combine for a grand finale of over 100 voices on songs common to both choirs. So two
choirs for the price of one.
29th May - 2nd June 2013
Visit to Vokaal Kabaal choir, Holland.
Saturday 16th March 2013, Edenham 7.30pm.
Woven Chords Easter Concert
Events in 2012
Woven Chords performed twice at the Stamford Feast Festival on the Meadows on Bank Holiday Monday June 4th. The first slot to an audience under umbrellas but for the second the sun shone brightly on us.
Woven Chords performed to the huge crowds that gathered in Grantham and Stamford to see the Olympic Torch pass through the towns on June 28th and July 3rd respectively. We enjoyed singing to probably our biggest audiences yet! Before singing in Grantham we experienced, along with everyone else there, one of the most horrendous thunder storms ever! The site and town were completely flooded. However it cleared up just in time for the torch relay and after the parade had gone through we sang in glorious sunshine. We were particularly thanked by the organisers for entertaining the Guildhall cafe to every song we could think of to do with rain while waiting for the storm to pass over!
Concerts in 2012
Saturday 15th December 2012, Stamford Methodist Church. 7:30 pm.
Songs from around the world, some seasonal and some not. Tickets £8 (children under 16, free) available from Stamford Arts Centre (01780 763203) or The Well Cafe (01476 550972). Refreshments available.
Monday 22nd October 2012 in Peterborough Cathedral at 7.30pm.
Sunday 21st October 2012 in the Ballroom, Stamford Arts Centre at 6-8pm.
A FREE concert open to anyone wishing to attend.
Sunday 1st July 2012, Summer Concert at St Michael and All Angels Church, Uffington 2:30pm.
The beautiful pastoral setting of Uffington’s St Michael and All Angels Church, with its meadow of cows grazing peacefully beside it was just perfect for our summer afternoon concert.
The church needs a new roof and Woven Chords needed to add to their year’s fund raising efforts to host Vokaal Kabaal from the Netherlands this October. It was a good collaboration – the church brought a good audience and the choir raised the rafters with some glorious full bodied singing.
The wide ranging world music programme included something for everyone – even a song in Russian about bulls to waft through the open door for the cows! Parts of the church fabric date back to the 12th century as did a beautiful homage to the Virgin Mary, Shen har venahi from Georgia, which is still sung as part of the Georgian marriage service today. The afternoon also offered many changes of mood and cultures including some lively African songs and a new Gospel medley.
The sun shone as the audience and choir enjoyed the after concert strawberry tea – a deliciously sumptuous affair, sitting at tables along the church paths. A delightful way to end a splendid afternoon, which also successfully raised £430 for church and choir alike.
Our thanks to Les Bailiie and her Uffington team for all their hard work.
Saturday 31st March 2012, 7.30 at Oakham School Chapel.
A joint concert with sister world music choir, Global Harmony, from Melton Mowbray.
The concert was a great success with a large audience enjoying two choirs for the price of one!
An extract from an email Liz received after the concert. "I just wanted
to say how much my husband I enjoyed your wonderful concert
in Oakham School Chapel. The music was so cheerful and uplifting and it was
amazing how you coped with all those complex words and sounds with no music
to help. It was great to see so many happy faces giving it their all. You
clearly have an amazingly charismatic and energetic director of music, her
vibes were positively infectious and it was great to join in at the end.
The two choirs came together brilliantly and the sound was incredible.
Thanks to all concerned and I hope we shall be able to make it to future concerts."
Below is a personal account of the concert from Lionel, a member of Woven Chords.
Concert night. For those of us that have “been there before” there’s the comforting feeling that all will be well on the night because it always is. For the relative newcomers there’s the frisson of nerves and wondering how on earth you will cope with singing twenty songs in fourteen different languages when you knew none of them three months before! They’re lucky - it’s usually thirty!
For all of us, however, this concert is a bit different: we are to sing with Liz’s “other” choir, “Global Harmony”. Most of us have never heard them sing. What are they like? Are they “better” or “worse” than us? More of them or less? Younger or older? What will they be singing?
Global Harmony have “won the toss and decided to bat first” so for Woven Chords it’s time to sit in the gods and watch our sister choir sing its own set. They look great and very soon it’s clear they sound great as well. We look at each other. Do we sound as good as this? The first song ends and we set the tone for the evening by whooping and hollering our approval. We whisper amongst ourselves, deciding which songs we would like to sing ourselves and, being human, smile wryly at the little slip ups that the rest of the audience won’t notice. They sing “It’s my party” and you wish you were singing it with them. When it’s over we applaud with the respect and sincerity of people who know what it takes to perform like that.
The gauntlet has been thrown down in the nicest possible way and there is a perceptible sense of extra “edge” as Woven Chords take the stage. The “boys” kick off the first song “E Malama”, a crowd pleaser that we all love to sing. There’s not as many basses as we would like, but I grin to myself as those first lines boom out from us. Chris Rowbury used to hammer into us that the first lines of the first song lays down the tone for the whole set. The “tops” respond with a soaring harmony. Someone has pressed Sue Waller’s “on“ switch and she is groovin’ away already, the whole choir joins in and we are on our way. We know it’s good and it’s going to carry on being good. Global Harmony repay our compliment by howling their support.
“Water of Tyne” is sung with lovely emotion and nobody misses their key change. “Hana ‘ava Babanot” that tricksy little Jewish number is delivered with aplomb – like shelling peas. How did it take us so long to learn?
As always, it’s over in the blink of an eye and time to take a bow. The Wovies retire to the dressing room with their heads high, knowing that they have met the imaginary challenge.
So then to the piece de resistance: the joint concert. We’ve only done a “technical rehearsal” together. Can both choirs know precisely the same parts? Being intermingled, our own little informal mutual support groups have been split up. I’ve got to remember all the cues myself! I can’t dig the guy next to me in the ribs when he gets it wrong because I’ve only just met him! He probably feels the same way…
Then we’re up and running. “Tre hojitas madre” has some “banana skin” cues for the men. One thing we found it in the technical rehearsal was that Global Harmony had much the same shaky moments as ourselves! Within seconds we all know it’s all going to be ok as the men of both choirs blast out their parts with a razor-sharp timing that hasn’t been there all term. The sound from the massed ranks of the women is stunning. We relax. This is going to be good!
The sound has your head spinning. In fact, such is the volume that I have to watch the mouths of the “tops” to stay in time. “Zahlib ih si edno libe” is one of my weak songs and I know it. The bloke next to me steps gently on my toe at one point. “Days” that used to cause us so much trouble is a walk in the park - but not before I’ve planted a friendly retaliatory elbow into the ribs of the bloke next to me…
Now it’s “Mravalzamier” and I’m not quite sure that we’re all scanning the words the same way, but the sound makes the hairs on your neck stand on end and you wonder what it must sound like out front. Liz has a grin on her face the width of the nave as she points heavenwards to signal the crescendos. I’m feeling proud to be part of this incredible ensemble. How do we achieve this in two hours a week? For me, there’s still never a concert where I don’t feel a bit of a lump in my throat at some point – and it’s nothing to do with not having my water bottle handy!
Then to “We are one/Tedumela” which is well on the way to becoming the choir anthem. Simple words and melody, in English, and the most uplifting of sentiments :
“We living under the same sun, we’re sharing the same earth, we’re sleeping under the same stars and we are one….”
It seems to sum everything up. As you sing songs in so many languages from every life experience from spirituals to anti-apartheid defiance, from Jewish weddings to Geordie love songs, it’s hard not to reflect that you are indeed part of a world-wide community. And these choirs, at least for one evening, are also one. Billions of people, one world, one choir, one voice.
Oh, and one effervescent, irrepressible, lovable choir leader pouring her soul into it as always. It means the same to her as it does to you. You never want to let her down.
In a flash, it’s all over. We’re doing our usual clumsy bows – we really should practice. Then it’s back to the dressing room, the buzz that comes from a job well done and a night well-spent. Your friends are there, the smiles of recognition, the murmurs of congratulation, this time shared with faces that are not so familiar. The newcomers are basking in the pride and relief of getting through their first concert and wondering how the hell they did it. You remember feeling the same way. You slap them on the back.
Then it’s the pub, a chat with old and new friends, the sweet feeling of success. When did you ever have so many friends? When in your life did you ever feel part of something so worthwhile? How often in life do you get that lucky?
And to think that for each of us it started with just walking into a room, realising that everybody just wanted you to be there, opening your lungs, opening your minds, moving your lips and just SINGING!!!!
- Make you feel my love (Bob Dylan).
A song written by Bob Dylan that appeared on his 1997 album Time Out of Mind
- Tres hojitas madre. "Three little leaves"
Traditional Spanish Mothers song
- We are one.
Community Choirs Festival 2011
Woven Chords teamed up with Global Harmony at this years Community Choirs festival held in Straford upon Avon. You can see and hear the perfomance of Noyana here Woven Chords with Global Harmony
"A unique experience. Such freedom of movement. A truly joyous evening. Thanks. Thanks. Thanks."