First Contacts - Streatham Choral meet Farnham & Bourne

A group from Streatham Choral piled down the A3 for a venture into the unknown yesterday - in more ways than one. Our destination was Farnham in deepest, darkest Surrey – well outside the comfort zone of the M25 boundary!

Armed with only voices and picnic lunches, we spent the entire day singing Handel’s Israel in Egypt (part 1) with Calum’s other choral society, Farnham & Bourne. Most of us had not sung the piece before and we knew we were in for a challenge.

We had a great day – the Handel was amazing. We especially loved the chorus where we all try to sound like lice and flies. We are definitely putting forward a request to Calum to do this ourselves in the near future! The pleasure was heightened as after our picnic lunch in the yard, F&B were supported by soloists Lauren Young and Hazel Neighbour – absolutely delicious. Lauren sang at our French Connections concert in March this year and it was lovely to catch up with her once more.

F&B were very welcoming and friendly and we like to think we have made some new choral friends. We’ve invited them for a reciprocal visit to our Come & Sing in January. A chat with the F&B committee could also result in a very exciting potential collaboration…watch this space!