Elijah at Home

Photo: Wikimedia Commons

The Self-Isolation Choir proudly presents a course on Mendelssohn's incredible oratorio ELIJAH.

This was a LIVE course during September 2020 to February 2021 when over 1,400 singers took part in a LIVE online course with Ben England BEM as our Course Director. We learned the whole of Elijah and sent in recordings of our own voices which were combined together in the studio for a WORLD TOUR when we performed our version of Elijah three times in one day.

Here is the SIC singing LIFT THINE EYES: https://youtu.be/n1dw5e3azik

Here is Ashley Riches opening Elijah at his recording: https://youtu.be/6sw3DJl1kc0

Here are some comments from our singers about our Elijah:

“I am still weeping with pride and happiness… I have never, ever felt like this after a concert.”

“I think today was the choral highlight of my life”

“We can truly say this was one of our most memorable ever concerts and musical experiences”

“I cannot believe what I am hearing on Radio Choral. Is that really us? What an amazing job the sound engineers have done. What a truly fantastic production. The tears are flowing in sheer adoration. Please pass on my thanks and congratulations to everyone involved. You must all be so proud. Ben has been utterly brilliant at bringing us all to this point and he must be so excited for tomorrow, as are we all.

“Have just listened to OUR Elijah on Radio Choral. Lost contact with the station a few times but that didn’t detract from the fantastic quality of the production. It is quite THE MOST BEAUTIFUL choral work I have ever heard. So THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU for introducing me to this wonderful work, for organising the brilliant soloists, all our rehearsals with the superb Ben England.”

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You can feel part of this course by taking part in all the sessions right now. And because the LIVE part of the course is over and you do not have the chance to record your part, we offer this course at a 50% discount to the normal price - so it is now £20 as opposed to £40.

We shall learn ELIJAH together in recorded online choir rehearsals with our musical director, Ben England, when we shall spend time with choir members from all over the world learning OUR VOICE PART ONLY.

All the teaching videos are there for you to enjoy at your own speed and in your own time. Whilst the teaching is pre-recorded, you can follow the course “as if it were live” and build up to your own Concert Performance.

“I thought I knew Elijah well and Ben has shown me time and again with his enthusiasm for the work that I really don’t know it at all”.

-Paul

“Ben’s teaching is nothing short of sensational and I am loving every second of being part of The Self-Isolation Choir”

-Sandy

Inspired by his passion for the music of the Baroque masters, Felix Mendelssohn composed Elijah to be premiered at the Birmingham festival in 1846 - the year before his untimely death. The work, although distinctly Romantic in style and conception, owes a great deal to the work of Bach and Handel, whose music Mendelssohn loved and championed. It is a treat for choral singers, containing such choruses as the immortal Lift Thine Eyes, the fiery Yet Doth The Lord See It Not and the dramatic (and fun!) Baal choruses, among many others. The work is scored for a large choir, a full team of soloists and our version will be using the huge sound of an organ to accompany the singing.

How it Works

Under the expert supervision of our charismatic musical director, Ben England, we shall learn all the choruses of ELIJAH from home in choir rehearsals which you can play at anytime. All rehearsals are available per voice part on a link you will be given when you join.

We have recorded ASHLEY RICHES singing the role of ELIJAH supported by Richard Gowers on the organ at a church in Chelsea, London. We have also commissioned the Fieri Consort to support us. They will sing all the other solo parts and all choruses in separate voice parts which will assist us in our learning. Finally, Jiaxin Cheng, the world renowned cellist, will play the solo cello part in the movement IT IS ENOUGH.

Fee

The cost of the course is £20 incl. VAT. This will include access to all the teaching videos (which will be private and accessible only by members of the choir) and a free online score.

When possible, it is hoped that we shall sing ELIJAH together at the place where it was first performed: Birmingham.

On 26 August, 1846 a huge crowd gathered at Birmingham Town Hall to hear the composer conduct an orchestra of 125 players and a chorus of 271 voices. The work was a resounding success and Mendelssohn wrote to his brother, “No work of mine ever went so admirably at its first performance, nor was received with such enthusiasm by both the musicians and the audience. I was able to sway at will the enormous mass of orchestra and choir and organ … No less than four choruses and four arias were encored.” 

“I miss my real life choir but this truly is the next best thing. I have been with the Self-Isolation Choir almost from the beginning and I am incredibly impressed with how professionally it has been done. Ben is so calming and a wonderful director - I feel as if he is the room with me.”

-Sally