And then there were three. That's three last gigs for Na-Mara - and on Rob's birthday too!
We had kindly been invited to perform a recital as part of a lunchtime classical music series at St Peter’s Church in St Albans and, with an excellent charity cause in mind, we were more than happy to oblige.
Given the five minutes it would take to get us from home to St Peter’s, we met up with friend Dave just before 11:00am and were unpacking and inside the church just after the hour.
Ably assisted by church officers, Carolyn and Reg, we were made most welcome and were able to set up ready for a brief rehearsal in advance of any concert goers arriving. This was a very worthwhile experience as the inbuilt reverb church acoustics often provide can sometimes take a little getting used to. It is best to familiarise oneself with the soundscape before beginning a performance.
Once content, we then rested and, as a former choirboy a lifetime ago, I guiltily scoffed my pre-gig banana in the Lady Chapel and, together, we waited for our audience to arrive. From 12:30pm onwards the church began to fill. This concert series is generally very well attended and by the time MC for the day, Mike, introduced us, there were over 100 people in our ‘concert congregation’.
The hour-long concert went well and, as has often been the case when we’ve performed to classical music audiences in the past, the feedback after the event was tremendous. Audience members were highly complementary about our musicality, the variety we provide in our programme and the poignancy of some of the topics we cover.
Rob, Dave and I were able to join audience members and friends in an after concert snack of sandwiches, cake and wine, which afforded the chance to talk further with some very interesting audience members.
This was a lovely event to participate in and doubly so in the knowledge that it helped raise a reasonable amount of money for a very worthwhile charity. Many thanks to Carolyn Alexander for the invitation to participate in the concert series and to the organisers for their lovely gift of wine given after the performance.