Tag Archives: st giles church

One word – Organoke. *drops mic

Well – it’s been quite some time (6 months) since your choir leaders wrote a post on the website. Apologies. We move in mysterious (lethargic) ways and we prefer to think that our lack of contact has encouraged you to come to more rehearsals to find out what on earth we’ve got in store for you. Or you could just blame our organisational skills. (What skills?)

Moving on – this summer is going to be big. Usually, we do a summer concert, perform outside in the park, join a few other choirs for another concert and so on. This term we have all that and more. The ‘more’ being ‘Organoke’, a new concept exploring the age-old link between the church pipe organ and rock and roll…

Phantom of the Opera Organ
St Giles’ before organoke…
Weird organist in hat
…afterwards

 

 

 

 

 

Essentially, we’re going to join in and lead karaoke classics accompanied on the organ in St Giles’ Church, with the help of a band, a bar and some fancy dress outfits. Admittedly, this is not a normal combination and to the best of our knowledge this hasn’t been done before and probably for good reason. But as the opening night of Camberwell Arts Festival on the 11th of June it’s going to be great and definitely something different! We’re working out exactly how it will all work but come to choir to find out more – you never know when the next post will be.

In the meantime, check out the calendar which has upcoming rehearsals and concerts and see you at choir soon!

A Fright Night / Dead Day Choir

Day of the Dead
This weekend we’re singing at our first two gigs of the autumn term. And due to our amazing organisational skills, your choir leaders – and Carmel (so you know who to blame) – decided that to get an authentic performance on Sunday’s Day of the Dead celebrations we should have our annual silent film night the night before. Obviously this involves an after party in the crypt ’till late which should ensure that we all look and feel suitably dead for the next day. Or later on the same day in most cases if you think about it.

Still – it’s going to be an amazing weekend! Our silent film night on Saturday 31st is in it’s 3rd year and with the help of the Friends of St Giles’ Church and Camberwell Free Film Festival this year is going to be epic. Tickets are available on the door of the church for the film. And if you want to buy tickets for both the film and a ‘speakeasy’ theme night downstairs in the crypt afterwards, head on over to wegottickets.com where you can buy combined tickets for both events. The film starts at 7pm – and choir we’re warming up at 6pm in St Giles’ – see Calendar for more details.

Piccadilly Poster

Then on Sunday 1st November we’re heading over to Hackney for Día de Muertos. It’s being held at the RichMix Cinema, 35 – 47 Bethnal Green Road, E1 6LA and we’re on at 3pm.

Day of the Dead is a tradition spanning back thousands of years, where Mexicans honour their dead and celebrate life. And as well as all the celebrations it’s a chance to celebrate loved ones that have passed away. There’s a fully traditional altar, live music, arts & crafts and probably the most deliciously crafted Mexican food on this side of the pond! Check out the Facebook page here.

What a weekend – please join us if you can!

A Fright night at the movies!

The scariest night of the year is fast approaching…and when you’ve finished trick or treating, come over to St Giles’ Church in Camberwell and enjoy a classic silent film with live music – where sadly everyone will hear you scream – as it echoes around the church!

Foggy
‘Trick or Treat?’

We’re showing ‘The Lodger: A Tale of the London Fog’ at 7pm on Friday 31st of October. The choir is going to sing along with creepy piano music in-between the songs. It’s a sort of concert and film screening all at once – but sadly the church pews don’t have any cushions to hide behind so we’re laying on a bar to dull your senses instead!

It’s one of Alfred Hitchcock’s first films as director and is set in the London of the roaring 1920’s. At night, lurking in the fog, a serial killer known as “The Avenger” is on the loose. When a mysterious man arrives at the house of Mr. and Mrs. Bunting, suspicions begin to arise…

Despite all this, families are very welcome! It’s rated PG and probably the scariest aspect of the evening will be going to the loo as the toilets at St Giles’ are downstairs in the crypt… But it should be a fab night and just to make it that bit more atmospheric – feel free to come in costumes or period 1920’s dress. Tickets are £5 and £3 available on the door.

And if you’re hungry for more music and thrills after all this, why not head down to the crypt bar for live jazz? Funky band ‘Paragon’ will be down there playing music from their new album ‘Cerca’. Have a listen for yourself here. The crypt is open till witching hour and you can get joint tickets for the film and jazz (from 9.30pm) at wegottickets.com.

Ready to SCARE!

Well at least with our choir, you can’t blame the leaders for not keeping you on your toes. And we’re all going to have to be for our next performance… Yes, we want to scare people with our singing – but in a good way!

Coming Soon!
Coming Soon!

It’s our choir’s third Halloween performance and this year we’re really pushing the boat out! The plan is to sing along to a 1924 silent film featuring Victor Hugo’s tragic hero, Quasimodo. It’s going to be a lot of work, but in collaboration with lots of other musicians we think it’ll be worth it and hopefully lots of fun too. It’s going to be screened at St Giles’ Church at 7.30pm on the 2nd of November and we’re even hoping to ring some of the bells in true Notre Dame style.

So that’s the plan for our next month of rehearsals. We have to admit though, with only 83 days to go, we’re already starting to think about Christmas…

Autumn already…

AutmnWith another spell of hot sunny weather forecast for this week, it seems like only yesterday our choir met on a warm day in July to sing and celebrate Brunswick Park’s 106th Birthday! Lot’s of people since then have been saying how quickly 2013 seems to have gone so far. And although I think people say that every year – I think that this time they’ve got a point… And so onto a new term of Camberwell Community Choir!

Rehearsals begin on Tuesday 10th September at 7.45pm as usual in the St Giles’ Centre, opposite St Giles’ Church on Camberwell Church Street. If you’ve never been to a rehearsal with us before – why not try us out! We’re friendly, quirky, fun and belonging to a choir has so many benefits… If you look at our Facebook page you’ll see for yourself! Who’d have thought singing could rewire your brain and cure snoring?

This term we will once again be preparing for a scary concert in October – and this year it’s going to be epic. Like the movies epic… (hint!). And in December we will be ‘owning’ Camberwell with performances of Christmas carols both old and new. An exciting term to come!

Happy Autumn everyone – and see you soon! AV