Viva! term dates:
Thursday 2nd September – Thursday 16th December
***No choir on Thursday 28th October (half term holiday)***
Heart & Soul term dates:
Tuesday 7th September – Tuesday 14th December
***No choir on Tuesday 26th October (half term holiday)***
DCH term dates:
Wednesday 8th September – Wednesday 15th December
***No choir on Wednesday 27th October (half term holiday)***
Members of Viva! The Dorchester Women’s Choir during a recording session at The Lighthouse Arts Centre, Poole in July 2021. We performed When Time Lost It’s Edge, a song commissioned for a nationwide Covid themed project composed by Karen Wimhurst. Viva performed alongside members of the Dorset County Hospital Choir, students from Thomas Hardye School, the BSO community Chorus and Karen’s choir , Palida.
Our performance and others from around the country can be watched using the following link:
www.asongforus.org
Singing together even when we’re apart…
When choir rehearsals were understandably cancelled due to social distancing measures, we were imagining weeks of solo singing into hairbrushes, warbling in the shower, and chirruping into the ears of our locked-down family members.
But! Thank you Zoom app! And thank you Kathie for being determined to keep us together. Because now we have a way to meet up every week and sing our hearts out simultaneously, even though we’re scattered across Dorchester and beyond!
Although on Zoom we can’t all hear each other at the same time (we would go crazy!) we can learn our parts bit by bit with Kathie’s instruction, and then practise the songs in overlapping harmonies as we become more familiar with the music. In addition, Kathie has chosen recordings of some of our old favourites (Somewhere Only We Know, Hard Times and Amazing Grace, to name a few so far) that allow us to individually sing layered above the entire choir harmony, giving a real feeling of togetherness.
If you haven’t joined us yet on Zoom, come and give it a try! Keeping that feeling of singing together as a choir is such a mood-booster and when we ‘un-mute’(!) at the start or end of the session the usual Viva chit-chat and laughter ensues! If you’re not sure how to work Zoom, drop Kathie, Wendy or Caroline an email and they’ll be happy to guide you.
Look forward to seeing you all again this Thursday, at 7pm (our new regular time whilst ‘virtual’!).
Viva Women’s Choir were honoured to be asked to return to sing at Dorchester’s Holocaust Memorial Day Event this January 24th.
Viva sang No More Silence, a folk song by The Burns Sisters.
Held at the Corn Exchange, the theme of this year’s commemoration was ‘Stand Together’, and the event included readings and presentations from Sunninghill Preparatory School and The Thomas Hardye School.
Read Dorchester Echo’s article on the event here.
Thursday 9th January – Thursday 13th February
No choir on Thursday 20th February (half term holiday)
Thursday 27th February – Thursday 2nd April
Monday 6th January – Monday 10th February
No choir on Monday 17th February (half term holiday)
Monday 24th February – Monday 30th March
Here is the hall timetable for Viva rehearsals at the Silver Band Hall:
Jan 9th: Small hall
Jan 16th: Big hall
Jan 23rd: Small hall
Jan 30th: Big hall
Feb 6th: Big hall
Feb 13th: Small hall
Feb 20th: Half term holiday, no rehearsal
Feb 27th: Small hall
Mar 5th: Big hall
Mar 12th: Small hall
Mar 19th: Big hall
Mar 26th: Small hall
Apr 2nd: Big hall
Hi all, here are the dates for the halls for autumn term 2019. It’s a little easier to remember this term as we simply alternate each week.
Sep 5th: big hall
Sep 12th: small hall
Sep 19th: big hall
Sep 26th: small hall
Oct 3rd: big hall
Oct 10th: small hall
Oct 17th: big hall
Oct 24th: small hall
Nov 7th: big hall
Nov 14th: small hall
Nov 21st: big hall
Nov 28th: small hall
Dec 5th: big hall
Dec 12th: small hall
Dec 19th: big hall
Car parking: we now have permits to use part of the Youth Centre car park (grass/tarmac behind the Band Hall) as long as we display a permit and comply with a number of conditions.
On evenings we are in the Community Room we cannot use the parking adjacent to the larger Band Hall and we need to seek on street parking.
5th September – 24th October Viva! Autumn term (part 1)
31st October – Half term break (no choir this week)
7th November – 19th December* Viva! Autumn term (part 2) *TBC depending on Christmas concert date
Summer Harmony Singing Workshop August 2019
A wonderful time was had by all at the Summer Harmony singing workshop at Brownsword Hall in Poundbury this August. Kathie welcomed lots of new faces along with current members of Heart & Soul and Viva to join in singing some new rounds and multi-part harmonies, along with a few old favourites, such as ‘Lime in the Cooking’.
