The month ahead...

It's all go in the Starling HQ this December! Emily tells us about the essential Starling activities this month:

Taking Flight, departing soon!

Following the fun of recording our first album a few weeks ago (which you can read all about in our rather epic post chronicling the experience!) we're putting the finishing touches to the record ready for release on Tuesday 11th December.  With the band, choirs and soloists all to be mixed, CDs to be printed and running orders decided upon (a tough but fun job!) we've plenty to do before its first public airing, but we can't wait to share it!

The album will have its first outing at our launch party in Earl's Court on Tuesday 11th December. CD copies will be available to purchase, with special live previews of a selection of numbers from the choirs. For more information about the event see our What's On page! CDs will also be available to purchase from our new online store from Wednesday 12th December.

Walking in a winter wonderland...

In the festive spirit, more than 25 of our choir members will be donning Santa hats and dusting off their descants and 'fa la la la las' to raise money for three fantastic charities this month. This year, Starling Arts will be performing at venues around central London, charity buckets in hand, so if you're in the area please pop along and offer your support to three fantastic charities.

Whizz-Kidz

We are delighted to be singing carols and raising money for Whizz-Kidz again this Christmas. This is the third year we've sung for and supported this fantastic charity, so if you're passing through Bond Street station on Thursday December 6th between 5.30 and 8.30pm, come and say hello and drop a note or two into their buckets! Find out more about Whizz-Kidz at www.whizz-kidz.org.uk.

Corvida Diva and Whizz-Kidz staff member Jess says...

Starling Arts have been a fantastic supporter of Whizz-Kidz each Christmas for the past few years. I've worked for Whizz-Kidz a number of years and first met the choir when out Christmas Carolling with Whizz-Kidz - it wasn't long before I signed up. The support of the choirs in some festive carolling each Christmas helps Whizz-Kidz to provide the right wheelchairs and support at the right time for disabled kids around the UK. It's a brilliantly fun way to raise money, don a santa hat, and transform young lives. The impact of a day of Christmas carolling can last a lifetime for the kids Whizz-Kidz supports - thank you Starling Arts!

St John's Hospice

Donning our Starling Arts hoodies for warmth, we'll be carolling for Christmas shoppers in St John's Wood to support St John's Hospice on Saturday December 8th 12 - 2pm. Drop by to have a listen and pop into the hospice shop while you're there! Find our more about St John's hospice at www.stjohnshospice.org.uk.

Starling Singer Katie says...

I have been a member of Starling Singers since May 2011 and it’s so fantastic to use this opportunity to combine my personal and professional interests!  In my day job, I am a community fundraising manager for St John’s Hospice: a fantastic organisation, caring for over 2,000 patients and their families each year across 7 London boroughs. I am so grateful that Starling have agreed to help my Hospice and bring some festive cheer to St John’s Wood!

Westminster Befriend a Family

On Tuesday 18th December we'll be entertaining guests and raising money at another charity event. Westminster Befriend a Family provides practical and emotional support to families in Westminster, and we're thrilled to be supporting them this Christmas!

Starling recommends...

Two other fantastic choirs will be performing in Trafalgar Square on the evening of Thursday 13th December!

From 6pm, the 60 strong ENO Community Choir will perform carols under the Christmas tree, also raising money for Westminster Befriend a Family. I also work on the ENO Community Choir as part of my job at ENO, and they are a stunning choir made up of singing enthusiasts of all ages from Westminster and beyond! For more information, visit www.eno.org

On the same evening, between 7-8pm, staff of the the National Deaf Children's Society will be combining three brilliant things - Christmas, signing and singing - to raise vital funds to support their charitable work. The group is directed by one of Starling's own, Forte member Jo Banham.

Signing along to all your favourite festive hits - from Mariah to Slade via East 17 and Cliff Richard - it's an experience not to be missed!

Group leader and Forte member Jo Banham says...

Signing and singing are two of my great passions in life and Starling Arts offered us a fantastic opportunity to combine the two when we performed a signed version of Alanis Morissette's Ironic last term. Opportunities such as this to be creative and original with songs, and celebrate and value the various skills and experiences of its members, is what makes Starling Arts the fantastic company that it is...

We hope you all have a lovely December and to see you at one of these carolling events this month!

- Emily

The 'Taking Flight' Chronicles

This week was an exciting one for Starling Arts: we recorded our debut album! Emily chronicles Starling's epic week, working with producers of Auburn Jam Music, recording Taking Flight

A band of Starlings...

I have a rule never to get up before 7am unless I'm going on holiday. So when my alarm rang out at 6.30 on Saturday morning, I knew I was in for a treat: band and solo day! 

Making my way south on the Northern Line, I was filled with excitement, nerves and bundles of energy for the day ahead. Meeting Anna at South Wimbledon station, we stocked up on essentials - Haribo sweets and bottled water - and made our way to our studio for the day under the cover of umbrellas!

Juggling drum kits, music stands and wires, we played what felt like musical Tertris as we prepared the studio for the day ahead. Slowly the equipment fell into place (as did we, cameras at the ready)! 

Headphones on, we first recorded Look Up, a song written for Moon, our very own musical! It was a unique buzz hearing it played by a professional band and I could already imagine how incredible the vocals would sound layered on top! Anna rocked out on the keys and in a couple of takes, Look Up was down! 

The band record 'Look Up'Several tracks later, the band were making great progress and sounding awesome! With a rocking, energetic bass from Dave, uplifting precision drums from Rich and astounding keys from Joe, and Nikki at the sound desk we had a musical dream team! 

My personal highlights were hearing the organ rock it out on Let the Sunshine and the funk of Jen Green's arrangement of I Predict a Riot. Joyful, Joyful kept us all on our toes, but played us out beautifully. As the sun set on the afternoon, we had our bespoke professional backing tracks laid out ready for the rest of the album! 

Flying solo...

Scooting over to the Auburn Jam studio, we met our soloists who were looking even more excited than we had been that morning. For many, it was their first experience in a studio; Joe and Nikki's house rabbit Gregory calmed the nerves, as did the cups of lemon and ginger tea served by host Nikki! 

First up was Annie, our soloist on the beautiful Forte track Children Will Listen. This song often sends shivers down my spine in rehearsal, and Annie's rendition is hauntingly moving. Daisy and George from the Starling Singers laid down some incredible vocals for Shadowland, a track from the stage show of The Lion King. It was invigorating to hear such intense and powerful vocals.

Shelley Neighbour reprised a Starling Arts classic in Joyful Joyful, where her effortless and stunning vocals shone through! Let the Sunshine duo 'The Saras' did an amazing job mastering the gutsy opening of the number from the musical Hair, and Joanna Pelosi released her inner Alanis recording the stirring solo for Ironic, our only a cappella number.  Dan Garsin soared over the high notes with his electrifying rendition of I Believe in a Thing Called Love, nearly drawing us to a close...  

With only the opening lines of Look Up to record, Anna and I took to the mic. I tried to remember all the advice we'd given the singers all day: relax, enjoy it, stay close to the mic, perform... But I was still nervous! After all, the pressure feels greater with only two lines - and such an important two lines, with Look Up being our own song! 

One line in particular - life is better spent together - rang true in my head... Having spent the day in such inspiring, talented company, there was little else to do but smile, and be grateful I'd gotten up nice and early to experience it all! On Saturday night, all I can think about is recording the choirs during the coming week! 

We are so proud, and blessed, through singing to witness the people we work with being amazed by what they can do. I cannot wait to hear the finished tracks, a celebration of what our choirs have achieved so far in a form that will last forever. 

Fortissimo with Forte

On Tuesday, we recorded Forte's numbers, I Predict a Riot (a creepy cartoon romp version of the Kaiser Chiefs anthem), a cappella favorite Ironic and Stephen Sondheim's musical theatre masterpiece Children Will Listen from his musical Into the Woods.

In the beautiful church of St Mark's on Old Marylebone Road, Auburn Jam set up their mics and recording equipment, and after some gentle warm ups and a game of Starling Arts' favourite, Rubber Chicken, the choir took to their positions (and their headphones)! 

Seat belts fastened and bags stowed, we had take off! We kicked off with I Predict a Riot, which sounded incredible! The choir were energetic, with the instruction of 'suspicious, mischievous' facial expressions, did a brilliant job of laying down the parts. I love that each voice part has a verse to sing, each full of character and rascality. Once we got our doobies and our shoobies in the right place, we moved on. 

Children Will Listen was next up, and was the hardest number of the night to record. The subtleties of the harmonies, sneaky oos, aahs and oohs, and tricky, quiet vocal lines made this an exciting challenge. Dynamically this number is our most subtle and mature. Packed with lyrical and musical riddles, the song is a philosophical musing on life, with gut wrenching beauty in every line. 

Last but certainly not least was Ironic, tipped to be our trickiest recording challenge yet! As our only a cappella number, the piece didn't have a band recorded backing track to keep us in time or in tune. Choral singing without instrumental accompaniment is such a unique experience to sing and to listen to, with the collective human voice presented in the most beautiful way. Forte really excel at this, with their beautiful and sensitive blend. A cappella is the ultimate choir challenge, but luckily Forte's skillful singing and stunning blend came into force and the choir worked hard to nail this number.  

With the final line of Ironic recorded, we called it a wrap! Wow! 

Life is Better Spent Together: Recording the joint numbers 

Wednesday was a jumbo jet sized recording day. Before Corvida recorded their numbers, we laid down the vocals to our three joint numbers Look Up, Let the Sunshine In and Joyful, Joyful! 

It really is such a 'joy' to hear all 60 singers together. Look Up is an uplifting number, and sounded incredible in 4-part harmony. The choirs know what a lyrical challenge this song can be but all their word crunching and line learning paid off and the number was the best yet! Watch this space for our special Taking Flight music video to accompany the album release!

Let the Sunshine is one of my favourite musical theatre numbers ever, and the sound of all our singers performing this one gave me goosebumps! The singers each dedicated this song to something special, and suddenly choral magic was conjured in the studio. Wow. 

Joyful, Joyful is another uplifting, inspirational number, which our choirs sing with revelry! We imagined singing to an audience of primary school children, with a sole responsibility of making them smile. Anna has been performative conducting all week and is certainly getting the very best out of everyone with her energy and enthusiasm! 

After finishing some extra special recordings in the booth with some featured soloists in Let the Sunshine, the joint numbers were done! 

It's so satisfying to have reached this point together, after months of planning for the album, choosing repertoire, soloists, learning music and polishing off vocal technique. 

It's great to think our hard work will pay off every time we press the 'play' button on the album! 

Songbirds - Corvida

Corvida is our smallest choir, with just 11 ladies. And now it was my turn to record again, as a member of the nicknamed 'divas'! 

Before we began to record our numbers, we did an extra special vocal warm up, singing Happy Birthday to singer Anna Cook, who was celebrating her birthday in the studio with us! Then, headphones on, recording began... 

Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy is a fun close harmony number that never fails to make us smile. We worked tirelessly on dynamics and getting our mouths round the lyrics in rehearsals, and after moving everyone around in the space a little (on the order of producer Joe), we had lift off! As I was recording myself, I keep looking to Anna who is energetically conducting to check how we're sounding. She looks pleased, so I relax and really enjoy it! 

Make Him Mine is another personal favourite musical theatre number, from a show filled with incredible songs for women. The number, from TheWitches of Eastwick is a superb character number, with some stunning harmony work. It's another that we love to perform, and with the added challenge of recording solo lines, we focused on the dream man the song conjures up. 

Our final number, You Could Drive a Person Crazy, was a blast to record. It's a fun Sondheim number with a cheeky twist. We do-ed, boo boo boo boo-ed and sang about Bobby Baby until we were content! Before we knew it it was time to take off the headphones and call it a night (but not before the obligatory 'Band Aid' style photos...)! 

Recording is incredibly demanding on the body - and ears! Listening so intently is a skill most of us don't use with precision on a day to day basis, and this becomes even more of a challenge in an unknown room with both ears covered and microphones lining in front if you. It's recording when you realise how much you rely on trust with other singers, and of the conductor, who is the protector of your vocal fate for the duration of recording.  By the end of Wednesday night I am feeling satisfyingly tired - tired enough to know that we've achieved a lot and put everything into it! 

Heart and Music make a song, with the Starling Singers 

The Starling Singers are our largest choir to record, with 26 voices and three very varied pieces for the album. 

Jen Green's arrangement of I Believe in a Thing Called Love offers a twist to the pop rock anthem performed originally by The Darkness.  Instructions yelled during this one include 'sing like a Telly tubby' , 'sting like a bee' and... Keeping the sound bright and energized was our priority, so Anna and I again brought out our 'dad dancing ' to keep the crowds entertained! 

Heart and Music felt like a perfect fit for the album. The song perfectly sums up why Starling does what it does. The joy of singing from the heart, and the way emotions are at the heart of every song. Riddled with beautiful solo reflections, the song is rich and complex. The counter-point section is choral singing at its best, with five vocal parts layering the music with the unique sound only the Starling Singers can make. 

Shadowland from The Lion King allowed us all to channel our inner safari animals, and started with adjusting to the piano track laid down in the studio. This is a beautiful number is about capturing the spirit of survival through a cascading score full of richness and passion. The choir perfectly captured the essence of this number, responding to the vocal intricacies with pizazz!  

I liken choral singing to smoothie making. A perfect smoothie is a collaboration of lots of flavours to make something new and exciting. In a choir, individual voices join together in a matrimony of sound, and this can be really exciting. 

Hearing Heart and Music and Shadowland in particular tonight gave me a huge sense of what music is capable of - bringing people together, opening out the souls of everyone present and sharing a little bit of magic. There's certainly a bit of me that only music can reach. Building Starling Arts has allowed us to experience - and share - that magic every week. 

Check out the Taking Flight album.

How Can I Keep From Singing?

I've just finished watching the last episode of The Choir - Sing While You Work, and I'm crying; the closing rendition of all four choirs performing 'How Can I Keep From Singing' proves why singing in a group is such an uplifting, moving, motivational and brilliant thing to do.

As a choir leader, I'm a big advocate of programmes like The Choir for showing people that choirs don't have to be religious or made up of middle-aged, middle-class folks and boy choristers hiding behind hymn sheets. Choirs are for the soul. While the TV series frustrates me sometimes (the continuity errors, singers seemingly plucking song ideas out of the air and music miraculously appearing, not showing the long slog before songs begin to sound anywhere near good and the vocal arranger only getting a mention in the closing credits...), it also inspires me, reassures me that we do a good job at Starling Arts and reminds me why we started up the company - community.

If our new feature, Starling of the Week, has proved anything, it's the diversity of the people we have singing in the Starling community. Be they doctors, teachers, consultants, charity fundraisers, gas engineers or students, all our singers come from very different day jobs and backgrounds to be united in song. We're now like a family, with people house sharing, dating, working and holidaying with people they've met through the choirs. For me, that's the best thing about it - the singing is just a bonus. 

However, while we've set up a community, what I admire most about all of Gareth Malone's TV shows is that he goes into existing communities to unite people who don't know one another and that they share this communal identity. Whether it's the military wives, the people of South Oxhey, school kids, teachers and now work places, he has proved how a more tangible identity, such as a choir, can only compliment and strengthen the affinity and loyalty one has with their community and each other's lives. 

Gareth and his four work place choirs. Picture source: www.bbc.co.uk

Watching the four work place choirs in action was quite overwhelming. Many of the singers had never sung in public before joining their respective choirs, and to have the chance to be on stage and take part at the International Eisteddfod is quite the experience! I was with the judges when it came to choosing the winning choir, Severn Trent Water, and not just because they wore Starling's trademark black and teal! 

Performances always seem to bring choirs together even more - the singers have to, literally, face the music as a team. But it's the rehearsal space where the community grows that is something magical to be a part of, and I really hope this series has encouraged other work places to start a choir, or find someone who might help them to do so (apply within..!)

Alongside the series, I've been reading Gareth's new book Choir: Tears, Triumphs and Transformations, which has helped to fill in some of the gaps the TV show leaves out for purists like me. Most importantly, the book acknowledges the struggle and pressure a choir leader is under. Organising that many people is hard work, and even if music comes naturally to you, good leadership and musical ability don't necessarily go hand in hand. It's fascinating to see the learning curve and journey Gareth's been on in the last six years, and it's something I know Emily and I share also. Like Gareth, we pour hearts and souls into our choirs, and need them, and singing, as much as they need us to lead them.

Last week, I also cried watching another singing related TV show, Sing For Your Life. Led by Cat Southall, the programme documented a choir set up with and for cancer patients and studied whether the positive mental attitude and benefits of singing would help their cancer treatment. While the medical research was rather left to one side in the film, the programme proved, like The Choir, how bringing people together to sing can be so rewarding and empowering and was all the more poignant with this group; that the patients could share their prognosis, treatment and outlook with other people going through the same ordeal was one thing, but that they could sing, be uplifted and find strength in song to overcome or deal with some of this pain was incredibly overwhelming. 

All this brings me back to Starling Arts. The final question we ask in Starling of the Week is simple: 'Starling Arts is...?' and both Sing While You Work and Sing For Your Life reminded me of one of our yet to be published responses - 'Starling Arts is... therapy'.

In some ways, I think we're always singing for our lives.

- Anna

Back to School - 20th Sept. 2012

It's always a bit odd returning to our weekly choir practice after a summer away. While we've been living and breathing Starling all summer - what with Beauty & the Beast and the day-to-day running of the company - all our singers have been continuing their normal lives in London, just without their weekly sing. As a result, their eagerness to get back to choir is the best start to the term, making it even more of a pleasure for us to work with them.

We've some exciting things planned for our choirs in the next year, so we thought this was the perfect time to share some of them with you.

ACE TIME CONTINUUM 

Next Friday 28th September, Forte and The Starling Singers will be performing alongside Pete Into Orbit at Ginglik in Shepherd's Bush.

Pete Into Orbit is fronted by one of our singers, Pete Walter. A talented songwriter and performer, Pete inventively re-imagines traditional gig nights and takes the initiative to self-promote and produce his own events to showcase his band and other artists. We know only too well that it can be a hard and expensive task to mount a show of any size in London, especially if you're dealing with independent producers who may not always have your artistic interests at heart, so we applaud Pete's approach to getting his music heard.

This event will also feature sketch comedy fresh from the Edinburgh Fringe and Grace Savage, the UK Female Beatbox Champion 2012. She's just been touring with the amazing Vocal Orchestra at Udderbelly both in London and Edinburgh, and will be supporting Newton Faulkner on tour next month. 

We're honoured to feature alongside such a talented lineup! 

Pete hopes for this event to become a monthly residency at Ginglik, so we'd love your support in checking out this innovative evening of entertainment.

Tickets cost £7.50 and can be bought online at www.acetimecontinuum.brownpapertickets.com or via our What's On page.

THE STARLING ARTS ALBUM 

We're thrilled to announce that we will be recording an album this term!

Produced by Auburn Jam Music, the CD will feature music from all three of our choirs. 

It's an incredibly exciting project for us and great to collaborate with the lovely and talented Joe & Nikki Davison who run Auburn Jam. 

We'll be hosting an album launch in December for all our singers and fans to buy the album as a Christmas treat! 

More details on the release and launch will be announced on this blog in the coming weeks, along with some behind the scenes updates, so keep your eyes peeled!

STARLING OF THE WEEK 

Next week, we'll be introducing 'Starling of the Week' to our website. This is an opportunity for us to give you an insight into the wide range of adults and young people we work with on all our projects and who make up the Starling Arts community. Check back here on Monday for the first instalment!

'Til then, don't forget to buy your tickets for Ace Time Continuum, and join us next week for more news and views from Starling Arts.

Have a great week!

- Anna & Emily

Beauty & the Beast

It's almost a week since we finished our Summer School production of Beauty & the Beast, and we're still buzzing from the success of the show. 

The good thing about working in a small community like Chagford is that once such a project is over, everyone hails you in the street, passing on congratulations and praise, which is always nice to hear! Of course the thanks and praise is extended to our wonderful young cast and crew who delivered night after night with slick, polished and mature performances. Never have we worked with such a wonderful company and we're still feeling enormously content about it all.

Over just nine days of rehearsal, our cast worked tirelessly on acting, singing and dancing. While they all arrive word perfect on Day 1 (which is very beneficial to the rehearsal process), it never ceases to amaze us that our young stars, aged 9 - 18, are willing to put in so much time and effort to the production, and invest such pride in all they do. While Honk! and Moon were great productions for many different reasons, Beauty & the Beast seemed to raise the bar, with one audience member saying, 'You have surpassed yourselves'.

So what was it that made Beauty & the Beast kick things up a notch?

My what a guy, gaston!

Firstly, the score and songs are brilliant. In acquiring the junior rights for the show, it meant the publishers, Josef Weinberger, also supplied us with an excellent orchestral backing track, which undoubtedly gave the production a more 'professional' sound (and saved Anna having to learn some rather tricky piano parts!)

Secondly, it's such a well written story and, in the classic Disney way, works on so many levels; some love the slapstick humour and great comic characters, while others gush over the love story and moral sentiment of the piece, and it's popular with adults and children alike.

Thirdly, and perhaps most importantly for us, it's the perfect show to do with a group of young people; some top principal characters with a colourful array of smaller supporting roles, and plenty of parts in the chorus, who get to sing all the best songs - it's a winning formula!

So, to reflect on the whole experience, we've answered three questions about the Summer School below, and there's a review (which will be appearing in the local press) for you to lap up and enjoy!

Three Questions for Anna & Emily...

1. What was your favourite song in the show?

   Anna: Human Again - the singing was so strong, and the harmonies divine. Oh, and I loved The Mob Song because it got everyone pumped!

   Emily: Gaston - who couldn't love a song with the lyrics, 'I use antlers in all of my decorating'?! 

2. What was your favourite rehearsal moment? 

   Anna:Getting 34 cast members of varying musical experience and ability to sing in harmony. Hearing songs like Belle and the Finale for the first time was awesome and I was pleased the Guide Vocal CDs I'd made them all had paid off!

   Emily: I loved teaching the cup dance from Gaston with nearly 30 painted 'C'mon England!' tankards, and seeing it come to life on stage. And finding a snake on the floor of our rehearsal studio was quite an occasion, too!

3. What was the best thing about the Beauty & the Beast Summer School overall?

   Anna: Working with such an appreciative company is the greatest gift. I also loved that in spite of so many things being ready made for us (the script and score, some costumes, etc), there were still so many opportunities for original, 'Starling touches' to be made and added to the show. The feedback from the audience, cast and their families is pretty good, too!

   Emily: For me it was learning so much from our ridiculously clever and talented cast, in the beautiful and friendly setting of Chagford, and seeing our giant book (see video below) open for the first time was magical! 

We hope you've all enjoyed charting the progress of this year's Summer School on this blog and via Facebook and Twitter, and thank you to all our cast, crew and supporters for making our summer so much fun. And now we leave you all with this lovely review of the production.

'Til next time!

Anna & Emily

Review of Beauty & the Beast, Jr.

Alan Menken - multi Academy Award winning composer of Beauty and the Beast - said, in a personal message to the cast of the recent Starling Arts Summer School production "The true reward for working in musical theatre is the joy of collaboration; the experience of pooling one's talents with other artists, in the service of creating something wonderful. If you strive for that experience, you never know what miracles might happen."

Well, anyone who attended the production in Chagford Jubilee Hall on August 22nd, 23rd and 24th will have witnessed that something wonderful was, indeed, created and miracles did happen.

For the third year running, Anna Shields and Emily Cook returned to Chagford to run a Summer School, with young people associated with Chagford and the surrounding area. This year the cast and crew numbered 40 and, in just 9 days of rehearsal, the 34 performers learned complicated dance routines, difficult to sing songs and all the dialogue in between, to produce a show of which many professional companies would have been proud.

For young people - many of whom were aged between 9 and 12 - to sing Menken's tricky numbers with such aplomb was a credit to Anna's skilful musical direction and Emily's, often complex, choreography was equally well executed.

But it was the enthusiasm from the entire cast which was so evident. Anna and Emily had worked them incredibly hard for over a week but the end result was a tribute to their directorial skill.

A professional actor who saw the production stated "I came prepared to make concessions for the age of the cast and the fact that they had only had 9 days of rehearsals, but this was not necessary".

Although it would be unwarranted to pick out any single cast member, special thanks must go to the 7 ‘senior’ Starlings; Lark Ash Wheeler, Amy Crock, Alice Herrington, Diggory North, Emily Searson, David Todd-Jones and Millie Wood who have all now left school and are venturing out into the world of travel, work and university but, without any arm twisting, once again answered Anna and Emily's clarion call to be in this production.

- Words by Lucy Morton

Two minutes with the Beast

For everyone who missed it (or anyone who wants to see it again!), here's a whistle-stop video tour of our recent production of Disney's Beauty & the Beast, Jr!

We had a great Summer School and have been blown away by the talent of the cast and crew.

Thank you to everyone who made it possible and congratulations to the performers on a beautiful show!

We will be posting a blog next week with a full Summer School debrief, but for now it's time to wash and iron costumes, find homes for all our props and catch up on some sleep!

'Til then, enjoy the bank holiday weekend!

- Anna & Emily

Behind the Beast

We're about to start Day 5 of rehearsals for Beauty & the Beast, and things are going brilliantly.

Blessed with a very talented young cast, rehearsals have been full of lots of singing, acting, dancing and fun!

To give you a taste of what it's like, check out this short video!

Four performances of Beauty & the Beast will take place in Chagford Jubilee Hall on...

Wednesday August 22nd, 7.30pm

Thursday August 23rd, 7.30pm

Friday August 24th, 2.30pm and 7.30pm

Tickets available online or from Fowlers, Chagford. 

A Quick Update

It's been a busy week at Starling HQ, so we thought we'd provide you with a quick round up of all the action.

• Rehearsals for Beauty & the Beast get underway next week, so both Anna and Emily are busy preparing for the show. This is their third summer school and they're expecting even more fun than ever. The girls plan, produce, design and make nearly everything themselves (with a little help from the Chagford community), so their time in Devon is always action-packed! 

• Anna has de-camped to Chagford to begin preparations on the set, costumes and props, and will begin rehearsing some of the principal singers while Emily is planning and preparing the summer school's activities, whilst polishing the dance numbers ready to teach the nearly 40-strong cast!

• Meanwhile Amanda, a member of Starling's singing group Forte, who is kindly giving up her holiday to be wardrobe mistress on the production, is fashioning teapots, Beastly wigs and candle headdresses ahead of her arrival in Devon. We can't wait to see her wonderful and ambitious costumes come to life! 

• We now have a video from our recent concert Summersault available on our YouTube channel. You can check out I Sing the Body Electric, performed by all three choirs, below. Special thanks goes to Chris Cook, Peter Shields and Pete Walter for recording the sound and video, and Pete for editing them for us. More videos will go online in the near future, so make sure you subscribe to our YouTube channel for all the latest videos!

• Meanwhile, the girls are busily cooking up plans for the next chapter of the Starling adventures - watch this space for news of some exciting events, workshops and opportunities later on this year! 

Tickets for Beauty & the Beast are available from our What's On page and Fowlers in Chagford.

Song of the Day

As a child I was brought up on a lot of musicals, jazz, classics and a good dollop of The Beatles. I adored My Fair Lady, so when I took up playing the sax and had a growing interest in jazz, my Dad introduced me to André Previn’s version of the score - it was genius. (Have a listen on Spotify by clicking here)

When I was at university, I was playing in the pit band of a production of A Chorus Line.  My housemate was in the production playing Diana Morales, who every night got to sing 'What I Did For Love'.  During rehearsals, she introduced me to this version of the song by Me First and the Gimme Gimmes (from Are a Drag; their album filled with punk rock covers of show tunes) - I also thought this was genius.

What I love about these two albums is that they take the shows out of their original context, and give the material a broader appeal. Previn highlights Frederick Loewe’s wonderful melodies from My Fair Lady, while The Gimme Gimmes really make you rethink and listen to the lyrics of all the show tunes they cover on the album. I also love that these artists were shared with me by my family and friends.

Bringing show tunes, or any songs for that matter, to an audience who might not otherwise listen to them is one of the things I advocate most. We often hear singers in our choirs saying that some of their friends, colleagues or family have come to one of our concerts as a reluctant hater of musicals or show choirs, but left tapping their feet with all the songs stuck in their head, wanting to come back for more.

'I don’t really do musicals' is a saying that's always rather annoyed me. Historically speaking, musical theatre was the precursor to popular music. The likes of the Gershwins, Cole Porter and Irving Berlin dominated the Tin Pan Alley scene in the 1930s and 40s, successfully straddling both musical theatre and the 'pop' music of its day, which makes me think that it's form, as opposed to content, that influences the 'musical haters' of the world - they'd probably put up with the songs on their own, but when married with the stereotype of jazz hands, fantastical plots and a kick-line on stage, some people get uncomfortable... but that's a whole other blog!

I have always believed that everything we do in art and life should try to do one or all of the following: educate, enlighten or entertain. So last week, we launched 'Song of the Day' on our Facebook and Twitter pages. The idea is that every day we introduce Starling Arts' fans and supporters to a song that we happen to love, and hopefully in doing so, we make them acquainted with a new artist, style, or show.

Today's Song of the Day is 'Climb Ev’ry Mountain' from The Sound of Music, as performed by the Brooklyn Rundfunk Orkestrata (BFO). I discovered their album The Hills Are Alive last year and was hooked. The way they have musically re-imagined The Sound of Music is so refreshing, and a great way for lovers of the show to enjoy the score in a new light, or for newcomers to the musical to be introduced in a way that feels current. I really recommend checking out their mash-up of the Jackson Five’s ABC with 'Do-Re-Mi', and their Gospel 'How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria', which subtly steals from West Side Story's 'Maria' in a glorious musical homage. 

At Starling, we try to present a fresh take on songs we love, and not just in the mash-up sense that Glee has made popular. For our most recent show, Summersault, I re-arranged Whigfield’s 'Saturday Night' as an a cappella number which stole from doo-wop, sacred music and, with the help of a beat-boxer, dubstep. Thanks to the talented Jen Green, we also billed a swung version of The Kaiser Chief's 'I Predict a Riot', which would easily be at home on the soundtrack of the 1960s animated Spiderman series. 

I love hearing fresh takes on old songs. In researching for Summersault, I discovered Cannoball Adderley’s jazz covers of Fiddler on the Roof and the Avenue Q Swings album, which pretty much does what it says on the tin. I remember buying Jamie Cullum's Twentysomething album after seeing him sing 'I Could Have Danced All Night' on a TV show, and with it discovering his jazz-pop covers of Jimi Hendrix, Jeff Buckley and of course, Singin' in the Rain. 

But while musical theatre lends itself to and borrows from jazz, and vice versa, what I love about the BFO and The Gimme Gimmes's albums is their totally new take on show tunes. If Jay-Z can bring Annie to his fans with 'Hard Knock Life', (those lyrics poignantly underscoring his own), then these albums can surely give The Sound of Music, A Chorus Line and even The Phantom of Opera a new audience?

Whatever the answer, I hope that Starling Arts' Song of the Day will keep you entertained, enlightened and educated. 

Enjoy!

- Anna