SUNSHINE!
Drone footage by Henry Wainwright
This February, traditionally a month of cold and wet weather in many parts of Europe, we present:
SUNSHINE!
A course of music with Joanna Forbes L’Estrange to brighten our day, bring a spring to our step and a broader smile to our faces.
This music has been chosen because it is happy music. It makes us dance, it makes us smile and it makes us appreciate what we have.
“Joanna is charismatic and so, so talented. I would travel anywhere in the world to sing a shopping list with her”
-Choir of the Earth singer
Join us for
SUNSHINE!
Here’s Joanna Forbes L’Estrange and Alexander L’Estrange introducing the course with a snippet of each song we’ll be learning:
The Music
We have chosen 4 tracks for this SUNSHINE course, all new arrangements for this course by Alexander L’Estrange:
Bring Me Sunshine
As made famous by the UK comedy wonders Morecombe and Wise. Here is an example of the song and their genius!
Smile
This melody was written by Charlie Chaplin for the 1036 film MODERN TIMES. It was inspired by Tosca by Puccini and when asked about this, Chaplin said: “if you steal, steal from the best”. The words were added in 1954 and Nat King Cole reached no. 2 in the UK chats that year.
Click here for the comparison with Puccini
And here is Nat King Cole’s version:
What A Wonderful World
Surely no one can hear this song without appreciating the world around us and it reminds us all to look around and remind ourselves what a wonderful world we have. "What a Wonderful World" is a song written by Bob Thiele (as "George Douglas") and George David Weiss. It was first recorded by Louis Armstrong and released in 1967 as a single, which topped the pop charts in the United Kingdom, though it performed poorly in the United States because Larry Newton, the president of ABC Records, disliked the song and refused to promote it.
Here is Louis Armstrong singing it (enjoy this along with 54 million others!):
You Are The Sunshine Of My Life
"You Are the Sunshine of My Life" is a 1973 single released by Stevie Wonder. The song became Wonder's third number-one single on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and his first number-one on the Easy Listening chart. It won Wonder a Grammy Award for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance, and was nominated for both Record of the Year and Song of the Year.
Rolling Stone ranks the song at number 183 on their list of the "500 Greatest Songs of All Time".
Here is Stevie Wonder singing this song:
Joanna Forbes L’Estrange and Alexander L’Estrange
Our Course Director for SUNSHINE! is none other than Joanna Forbes L’Estrange and she will teach us her husband’s new arrangements of each song.
Alexander L’Estrange has written new SATB arrangements for us and we are deeply honoured that he has done so.
Joanna Forbes L’Estrange began her career as soprano and Musical Director of The Swingle Singers and is founder and director of AQUILA, the all-female a cappella group at St John’s College, Cambridge. Choirs and a cappella groups in the USA, China, Australia and throughout Europe and the UK have benefitted from her coaching and workshops.
She prepared the choir of Trinity College, Cambridge, for their close harmony album and is guest conductor for the National Youth Choirs of Great Britain
Joanna’s website is www.joannaforbeslestrange.com
How it Works
We shall learn the music in live online sessions at home with Joanna. We use high-definition LIVE digital broadcasting in our sessions (not Zoom) so there is no interference or sound delay in the process.
We meet online in full choir and voice-part specific live sessions with Joanna. She will teach using rehearsal tracks featuring her and Alexander singing the arrangements. You will be given these rehearsal tracks with your own voice part louder than the others. This makes it easier to learn your own part.
There is no need to be there on time - all our sessions are recorded for you to watch later and as many times as you wish. The online chat allows us to communicate with each other and with Joanna.
When we have learned our part, we are invited to record our own voice onto our mobile phone. We do this by watching the conductor on the screen and listening to him/her on headphones. When prompted, we press record on our phone and sing. As we are wearing headphones, the only sound being recorded is our own voice.
We then send our recordings to Choir of the Earth who combines all voices in a recording studio. When everything has been mixed, we invite you back to an online Concert Performance where we play the finished pieces to everybody.
RECORDING - please do not worry. You will be given detailed instructions how to do this.
Timings
Joanna will teach us these new arrangements as follows (all times are GMT):
Monday 21st February - 14:00 to 15:00 FULL CHOIR
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Tuesday 22nd February - 14:00 to 15:30 Sopranos
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Wednesday 23rd February - 14:00 to 15:30 Altos
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Thursday 24th February - 14:00 to 15:30 Tenors
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Friday 25th February - 14:00 to 15:30 Basses
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Saturday 26th February - 14:00 to 15:00 FULL CHOIR
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Monday 28th February - 14:00 to 15:30 Sopranos
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Tuesday 1st March - 14:00 to 15:30 Altos
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Wednesday 2nd March - 14:00 to 15:30 Tenors
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Thursday 3rd March - 14:00 to 15:30 Basses
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Friday 4th March - 14:00 to 15:30 FULL CHOIR
CONCERT - Saturday 7th May at 15:00 UK time
Cost of the Course
The cost of the course includes the teaching, the concert and combining all the voices to create the choir.
For those on a budget - £35
Cost of course - £50
THANK YOU - £65
Scores
Often we require scores to be purchased separately, which adds to the cost of the course. In this instance, scores of these new arrangement are included in the cost of this course and will be given to you as digital downloads.
