For 3 years Leeds Festival Chorus has joined Leeds Heritage Week with Come and Sing events in famous Leeds Churches. In September 2023 we went to Leeds Minster for Come and Sing Faure Requiem. Over 100 people were there, half of them visitors and half from LFC. We spent 2 hours in the afternoon rehearsing under the direction of Rebecca Taylor, and 40 minutes in performance to a small audience of friends.
Some visitors were singing the Faure Requiem for the first time, some had sung it long ago and not had an opportunity to repeat the experience, others had sung it regularly. (Hopefully all the LFC members were already familiar with it.). It was clear that the experience was enjoyed by everybody there.
We had 2 young soloists who are pupils at Rugby School. Jonathan Davey sang the Pie Jesu with a beautiful clear treble voice. Arthur Shaw the baritone soloist has a remarkably mature voice, which we enjoyed in the Offertoire and Libera Me sections. Richard Tanner, Head of Music at Rugby, supported us all on the organ.
The end of the final movement, In Paradisum, was followed by a long silence from the audience. Were they enjoying the memory of the ethereal softness of that movement? Perhaps they didn’t know Faure’s Requiem well enough to know it had ended, or they were unsure of the protocol for applauding the end of a Come and Sing performance. Eventually one person started clapping and the rest joined in enthusiastically.
It's been brilliant to see a number of people who came to the Come and Sing at our weekly rehearsals. If you're interesting in trying out Leeds Festival Chorus please see our Contact Us page!
