Adopt a Music Creator blog: Back with a bang

Sheila Biegala fills us in on a long-awaited return to in-person activity for Ugie Voices, who can now look forward to more joint rehearsals with Aberdeenshire Saxophone Orchestra.

Ugie Voices are finally back to rehearsing in person! It is so wonderful to see everyone in person after so long with only Zoom rehearsals.

As for our Adopt a Music Creator project, things are moving forward. We had a joint rehearsal just before the summer break, which went really well. I don't mind revealing that this project was approached with some trepidation by choir members, as can be expected when faced with something totally new and, dare I say, a wee bit out of our comfort zone!

I am happy, and not a little relieved, to say that the joint rehearsal went a long way to easing our concerns. We were joined by our music creator, Ben Lunn, who – as well as being amazingly talented – was such a genuinely nice person. Ben took us through a couple of pieces, and also listened to our comments and took them on board. He rehearsed with Ugie Voices and then we joined Aberdeenshire Saxophone Orchestra, who were rehearsing in another part of the venue. That's when we got the best idea of how everything would come together, and it sounded wonderful!

Ben Lunn leads Ugie Voices through a rehearsal

There are still a few issues to work through, the main one being the balance of volume between voices and saxophones, but this is just a technical problem. We have set up another two joint rehearsals in October and November, so we're looking forward to that. 

By the way, you may notice our very own MD, James Campbell, in his cassock, had a very busy day! He led both morning and evening services, fitting our rehearsal in between, and it’s quite the drive between our venue and home – bless him!

Follow Ugie Voices on Facebook / Twitter and Ben Lunn on Facebook / Twitter

The Adopt a Music Creator project matches vocal and instrumental leisure-time music groups with some of the UK’s most promising music creators to collaborate on creating a new piece of music. The project leads to a premiere performance and broadcast on BBC Radio 3. If you’re a music group or music creator and you’d like to take part, find out more