JAGS Choral Society Director of Music’s report Season 23/24 It has been an honour and a genuine pleasure to take over as music director of the JAGS choral society. I have constantly been overwhelmed with the warmth and kindness of the choir, with whom I genuinely enjoy spending my Tuesday evenings with. Taking over the reigns of any choral society is something akin to jumping aboard a moving train. A choral society with such a close link to a school, with the associated difficulties therein of ever-changing personnel and constantly shifting sands, makes the job particularly tricky. It is perhaps though, the link between choral society and school that makes JAGS choral society so unique. The singers, for the most part, enjoy performing with the girls and vice versa. Part of its original purpose was to provide a backing for the girls, in order for them to sing the choral literature. JAGS choral society benefits from having two major concerts in the year with very little associated cost, something other choirs simply cannot imagine. With this comes the opportunity to sing in amazing venues with something of a guaranteed audience. Again, something that other choirs cannot imagine. The hire of Southwark cathedral for a concert comes close to £10,000. Whilst there may be some frustration associated with the complicated and sometimes unpredictable nature of working within the environs of a school, the benefits are obvious. The first work we tackled together was perhaps the best- known work in the choral literature; Faure’s sublime Requiem. Arguably not the most seasonal work for a Christmas concert, but something that we could get our teeth into without too much struggle. From the very first rehearsal, it was clear that this was a popular choice. It was work that allowed us to really focus on musical detail. It is kind to the voices, with nobody too exposed at any one moment. It also helped me learn (rather quickly) where the real strengths of the choir were. The concert at Southwark Cathedral was a huge success, but it is a venue that comes with challenges, not least as the rehearsal of the entire work needed to take place within an hour. The acoustics and sight lines are also tricky. We were ably joined by two very fine soloists, Michael Hickman and Keira Barrett (then a student in the upper 6th). The rather odd orchestration of the work was rearranged skilfully, yet subtly by JAGS head of strings, Kay Dickson, to include more violins to help the violas. Despite JCS only being part of a bigger concert, it was definitely the “headline” item on the program. I shall be brief about the “Come and Sing” Carols. For me this was a harder event to justify. We had only a small choir and it was hard to get an orchestra together. The audience was very small, as was the money raised for charity. We started January working on another very famous work, Vivaldi’s Gloria. There were several reasons for taking on this work. Like the Faure, the Vivaldi has a good arrangement for upper voices alone (I was mindful of the tour with the girls coming up in the summer). Also, all of the solos are for upper voices and none of them are so difficult as to be beyond the reaches of the students. Last year, we had a good cohort of string players in the school (as well as a decent harpsichordist) and the work would suit the less cavernous acoustic of Cadogan Hall. As with the Faure, the Vivaldi displays a range of choral writing. The “Et in Terra Pax” calls for long, sustained lines, some of which put pressure on particular voices (tenors especially), whilst movements such as the “Cum Sancto Spritu” call for rhythmic precision and dexterity. In some ways, this work suited the choir even more so than the Faure, and with the 50 or so girls from the Holst Choir, the balance was definitely a little top heavy in the concert. However, I was very pleased with the final result. Cadogan Hall is an amazing concert hall, being just about the perfect size for this kind of thing (I did a B Minor mass there with the Academy of Ancient Music recently and thought the same) and there are very few choral societies that get to sing there. Hindsight is a fine thing. Even more so when you are trying to do things for the first time around. I’m conscious that in the summer term, I made a few mistakes with both the repertoire choices (I didn’t really consult the choir!) and the rehearsal schedule. Haydn is one of the truly great, great composers. He was my University professor’s favourite composer and I will never forget our weekly Hadyn lectures. His masses are nearly all of a very high quality indeed and his “Nelson mass” stands out as one of the very best of this genre. It is a more difficult work than the ones we worked on earlier in the season. The sopranos immediately notice the prevalence of top G’s and A’s and much of the work leaves us feeling physically exhausted due to the intensity of the vocal writing. I could sense the fear in the first few rehearsals that this may have been something that we would struggle to pull off, especially as this was something to do on our own. However, good progress was made and even the most challenging of movements soon began to come together. Haydn’s Te Deum, too is a fantastic and somewhat under appreciated work. When I last performed it, some years ago at King’s Cambridge, I seemed to remember it just ticking along and “singing itself”. I confess to forgetting how tricky some of the word setting is. It was definitely a mistake to only throw this into the schedule so late on and a few weeks before the summer concert, I must confess to feeling somewhat anxious. However, with a bit of positive encouragement in rehearsal and carefully chosen “extras” in the concert, we managed to pull it off. The summer concert was an enjoyable experience and I would like to take this opportunity to thank the choir for their efforts to sell tickets. Audiences don’t come to amateur performances unless they have a personal connection, so we do need to be pro-active for all of our concerts. As I wrote at the beginning, the JCS is a special choir with a special remit, to work both as a unit to strengthen the voices of the JAGS girls and allow full choral performances at their concerts and also, as a musical unit in its own right. I do hope members appreciate that this is a very difficult balance to meet but that it brings with it enormous benefits. I would like to thank every member of JCS for their commitments through the year and for their warmth and kindness (which I hope continues). Sladjana has been the most amazing chair to work with and has been nothing but 100% supportive at every step of the way. Lastly, John Flinders is simply the best accompanist I could hope to work with, a true legend. I look forward to the coming years. T M Foster BMus DipRAM LRAM ARAM ARCO FRSA Director of Music