Singing Together - Theatre, Music, Action

Starling Arts’ Co-director Emily Cook reflects on a weekend running singing workshops in Toulouse, France.  

My absolute favourite thing about running Starling Arts has to be the fusion of singing and community, which is rooted in the soul of every note we sing. When Anna and I thought up our first motto back in 2010 - Unite, Create, Soar - weekends like this one just passed were exactly what we had in mind. Getting people together, creating something special using music, and flying high as a result. To my mind there are very few things that unify and bond people as quickly as singing - proof of which has to be the university production of the musical Follies in which I met my now fiancé! 

This Saturday morning we woke up in Toulouse in Southern France, ready to run a weekend of singing workshops with over 40 people, across a range of ages, levels of experience and first languages! We were working with a community association very much akin to our own ethos at Starling Arts; TMA (Theatre, Music, Action) also uses the arts to bring people together, providing arts opportunities in English for anyone in the local community, with regular music and theatre activities taking place during the year. The 'action' part of their title, to me, really enforces the idea that something special happens when people get together through the arts.  

We were really excited to have been asked to run a special weekend-long 'show choir' workshop for TMA, extending the work we already do with our three London-based choirs, as well as our youth, community, education and corporate singing projects. As we boarded a flight from London Gatwick, Anna and I took stock of how lucky we have been to pursue a career we love so much, and for our work to have taken us international, meeting like-minded people and sharing our passion for music and theatre, now, across the channel too!  

We had hoped to get the group, many of whom had not met before, to feel at home together, before exploring vocal, physical and performance techniques. Our chosen repertoire included songs from Rent, the charts and a favourite Elvis-era mash-up arrangement, complete with dance moves! We were excited to see that the group were so passionate about singing, so thirsty to learn new skills, improve their harmony singing and try out some new dance moves too. 

The fantastic workshop participants show off their jazz hands

The results were electric, with many of the group finding themselves surprised by their achievements: “I never thought anyone would get me dancing!”, ‘I didn’t think I could sing in harmony”, “I’ve always been too shy to sing in public!”... 

Of course we were very proud but not at all surprised by what the group achieved in such a short amount of time - it’s incredible what an investment in the concept of ‘community’ (and a bit of fun) can do. Before we could catch our breath, we were back on a plane to London, that motto Unite, Create, Soar more pertinent than ever as we looked down over France, soaring though the sky, still humming the tunes and tapping our toes.

- Emily

If you would like Starling Arts to work with your community group, business, school or choir, contact Anna and Emily at info@starlingarts.com

The Final Countdown: Abracadabra

Last week, the Starling Arts community had an epic week of singing and dance rehearsals, concluding with our first full run of Abracadabra by our wonderful band, made up of bass guitar, drums and two keyboards. Find out how the magic is taking shape in this week's blog post. 

CHOIR REHEARSALS

Performance rehearsals continue with members of all three Starling Arts choirs, Corvida, Forte and the Starling Singers. The show pieces are coming together really well, and the choirs enjoyed watching snippets of each others' songs at our final combined rehearsal on Thursday evening.

BAND CALL 

On Friday came one of our favourite parts of the final preparations for our productions: band call, the first day our musicians get together to rehearse the music for a show. Having rehearsed with our singers for some months using only a piano or keyboard in a small hall, the introduction of the band is like the icing on the musical cake, bringing everything together. The instrumentation adds texture and personality to the songs, bringing them to life. 

Using 'patches' from a computer plugged into our 2nd keyboard, we can achieve an array of high quality sounds played through the keys. We have a strings section, electric guitar, 80s synth bass and a brass section at the flick of a switch! 

We think our Abracadabra band are rather special. The incredible musician Jen Green has worked with Starling Arts since our very first session back in January 2010, and Abracadabra marks her 7th show with us, incredibly!  The talented Dave Holden returns for a third time to play bass with us and we’re thrilled to welcome Sam Cooper to our line-up for the first time on drums! Starling Arts' co-director Anna Shields leads the band, and can be seen here on Keyboard 1. 

We can't wait to perform Abracadabra on 6th and 7th July 2013 at the John McIntosh Theatre, London, and hope you can join us! Tickets are available from our What's On page.

Coming soon... Abracadabra

Starling Arts' next show Abracadabra hits the stage at the John McIntosh Theatre in less than four weeks! This post is an excuse to tell you all about it and to use as many magic puns as possible...

I'm willing to bet that everyone reading this is familiar with the word 'Abracadabra'. A magical incantation used in magic tricks, conjuring images of rabbits pulled from hats and magic wands, the word is so closely associated with wonder that it seemed an obvious choice to provide the title to our evening of musical performance artistry on stage!

The etymology of the word 'Abracadabra' suggests it comes from the Hebrew meaning "I create (A'bra) what (ca) I speak (dab'ra)." This struck a chord with us: through song we create different worlds on stage.

It's been a year since our last show, having recorded our debut album Taking Flight at the end of last year, and we've lots to show! Plenty of new voices have since joined us, bringing some incredible talent to the already spell-binding Starling line up. We've more variety than ever, with rock, pop and show tunes from a range of acts like Rihanna to The Lumineers, plus songs from the musical Matilda and show-tune classics like 'One' from A Chorus Line, featuring some of our most ambitious dancing yet. This show is a bit like a tin of Roses - there is something for everyone!

All of our adult singers have been rehearsing with us for just 2 hours a week over the last few months, but with plenty of extra work going on outside of sessions, the singers have poured their hearts into making this show something they can be proud of, practicing dance moves in their kitchens, harmonies in the shower and even sewing costumes on their Sunday afternoons!

Singing in a choir, particularly one with such an emphasis on performance, is hard work. Just when you think you've nailed a vocal harmony, a tricky dance step jumps in to confuse you, plus you sometimes have up to 60 other voices to blend with - but when it comes together, magic happens and we’re very proud of all our singers’ hard work!

Of course, the whole show will be spell-binging, but here are our top tips:

Our Abracadabra Highlights:

• An epic medley of Meatloaf's hits arranged specially for the Starling Singers 

• A Mary Poppins trilogy, with one number performed by each choir, with some of the catchiest tunes and trickiest dance routines yet!

• Songs made famous by Elvis and the 'Rock 'n' Roll' era mashed up in a toe-tapping performance from Forte 

• A punk-rock departure for our close-harmony Corvida ladies and a song made famous by the Red Hot Chilli Peppers...

We hope our singers will put a spell on you - just come on down and visit us on July 6 & 7th at the John McIntosh Theatre and see...

- Emily