Sunday 18 September saw Magenta spending the whole day on a retreat at Hillscourt Conference Centre, a return visit for the majority and first time for three of us who joined within the last year (with no idea of what to expect!)

Inspired by a beautiful venue (and an excellent lunch) we covered a variety of choir related topics, starting with a getting to know you ice breaker from Jenny, then a very helpful session from Liz on controlling nerves.

An artistic exercise by Cathy make us think about what Magenta means to us. Liz led a fun session on singing with varied (and in some cases rather bizarre) styles – try singing Somebody to Love while trying to look like an excited puppy!

There was also a session on quarteting led by our quartet regulars with each group then performing to the rest of the choir. Only ten notes but a really useful exercise for those of us new to singing in a quartet.

Glenys introduced us to the benefits of laughter yoga, though perhaps the biggest laugh came from Julie’s music machine exercise (pictured left).

A long and tiring day but good to spend time together recharging musical batteries, working on all sorts of different aspects (including sharing out the admin jobs) and getting to know each other better – very important when singing together. Roll on another year’s singing.

Jane Kirby

Magenta’s foray into the world of folk came to fruition this weekend with an exciting performance in the Folk Class at the Cheltenham Festival of Performing Arts.

In a departure from our usual repertoire, two traditional but contrasting folk songs were arranged by director Liz Garnett. The hauntingly beautiful ‘She Moved Through the Fair ‘ told the sad story of a lost love and was described by the adjudicator as an “atmospheric performance”.

The mischievous Irish skipping song ‘I’ll tell me Ma when I get home’ was in complete contrast. Punctuated by sequences of joyfully rhythmic stamps and claps, we hoped that the latter would be as fun to watch as it is to perform. The smiles from the audience confirmed this as did the adjudicator’s comments of “engaging and enjoyable”.

Cheltenham Town Hall provided a beautiful back drop for the class in which the very worthy 100 strong Cor Y Gleision (http://cardiffblueschoir NULL.co NULL.uk/) from Wales were eventual winners.

All in all, a rewarding and uplifting experience.

Sam Wishart

Myra Connell writes:

Yes, it’s true: it will be ten years in September since Liz put out fliers (I picked mine up at the Moseley Exchange while waiting for another group to start) asking for people to join a female close-harmony choir.   She was going to call it Magenta because it’s a colour that mixes two others – blue and red – and in the same way her vision for the choir was that it would mix all sorts of people. They didn’t need to be singers already, they didn’t need to be able to read music yet: all they needed (in one of Liz’s unique but now-familiar turns of phrase) was ‘up-for-it-ness’.

And now here we are, ten years later, having gone from strength to strength. We are known locally for our Christmas sets at the Mac craft fair, the Co-op, and other venues. We have won prizes at festivals, we have topped the bill at the Parkinsons UK concerts for the past several years, and most importantly perhaps, we have improved our musicianship, had a lot of fun, and made lasting friendships.

No doubt there will be more celebrations as the year goes on, but the party starts at the Moseley Festival, when on Sunday 3 July we will be hosting one of our famous workshops in which we all learn from scratch a song arranged specially in four parts by Liz, and then perform it to our friends and relations. There will also be a chance to hear some of the songs from our current repertoire, and (we are very excited about this) we are hoping that some former members will join us to sing one of the pieces that has been in our repertoire all along.   And then we will have tea and cakes!

We would love you to join us.

The venue is the Birmingham Buddhist Centre on Park Road in Moseley, and the workshop starts at 2 pm. Come to that, or just come at 4 o’clock for the concert and cakes.

Workshop £5 (women only for voice reasons, under-sixteens welcome when accompanied by a participating adult). Concert and cakes free and open to all. More information and booking: workshop@magenta.sandfordsolutions.com (workshop null@null magenta NULL.sandfordsolutions NULL.com)

Christine Mandelberg writes:

Imagine our surprise just before last Christmas when we were invited to perform the whole song repertoire from the film Dirty Dancing as part of the MAC (https://macbirmingham NULL.co NULL.uk/) Valentine’s Event (https://macbirmingham NULL.co NULL.uk/event/valentines-day-2016-meal/) on Saturday 13^th February.  A tall order for any choir!  As performing at MAC is a firm favourite with Magenta singers we were determined to find a solution to the challenge.

The usual MAC hustle and bustle had been replaced by a quiet and romantic atmosphere for the occasion so our objective was enhance rather than disturb the ambience whilst guests dined in the Bridges Café.  In complete contrast to our concert at St Mary’s Church in Moseley last month where we performed to a large audience, we chose an unobtrusive position where we could be heard rather than seen and where guests would be aware of something rather pleasant taking place, rather than being distracted from food and conversation by having a performance too “up close and personal”.  It felt appropriate not to make the usual introduction and announcements between songs and these short, silent pauses further added to the whole atmosphere.

To set the scene for the showing of the film we incorporated a newly commissioned version of ‘Kellerman’s Anthem’ (specially arranged by Liz Garnett for the occasion) with love songs from our repertoire such as ‘If You’re Not the One’, ‘Let There be Love’, ‘God Only Knows’ and our quartet also performed the haunting and dreamy ‘Feelin Good’.

We hope we were able to contribute to the success of the evening.  Thanks to staff at MAC for providing their hospitality and comfort for our warm-up.  We look forward to next time, whether it be the Christmas Craft Market or another Valentine’s Event!