By Madeline Driver, new member.
Having recently joined the Largs Community Choir, I was lucky enough to be offered a place in their Singing Weekend on Saturday 14th and Sunday 15th April.
18 choir members, myself included, began by catching the ferry to Cumbrae at 9.45 on Saturday morning en route to The Cathedral of the Isles in Millport. On arrival we were booked in and given a very welcome cup of tea or coffee and shown to the library where we were to have our singing workshop with Harry Campbell, our choir leader, who had joined us from Glasgow.
Harry had put together a very varied programme with some songs new to all of us and some the choir had sung before. Singing in a choir without musical accompaniment but harmonising our voices was, for me, challenging to say the least but so enjoyable to realise I was part of the whole sound.
Altogether we had approximately 4½ hours singing including an hour in the cathedral which sounded great. We, of course, had breaks for lunch and coffee or tea and then a lovely dinner in the early evening. After dinner we returned to the library and spent a social evening, with a few games, a quiz and then were entertained by some very amusing songs and poetry readings by fellow members of the choir. We had brought some snacks and preferred tipples along to enjoy and we all laughed a lot.
On Sunday, after breakfast, it was off to the library and another 4 hours of singing practice, including another hour in the cathedral, with only breaks to refuel and also to take in some of the atmosphere of our surroundings. Of course there was the requisite photo shoot too.
I found the whole experience so refreshing, hard work but so enjoyable and quite exhilarating. The Cathedral has such a comforting feeling to it and the rooms we stayed in were delightfully named, Peace, Gentleness, Faith, Hope and Charity to name a few.
Can’t wait to hear if we are to return next year……..
