Our annual retreat was another huge success this year as we were put through our paces by one of our former musical directors, the multi-award-winning, Linda Corcoran. After directing the Red Rosettes for nearly ten years, Linda has the kind of connection to the chorus that goes beyond the demands of a coaching role, and her presence is always so magical. She certainly pulls no punches, and never has time for tip-toeing around any issues that we need to correct, demanding the kind of commitment to the craft that has seen her own barbershop chorus, The Great Western Chorus of Bristol, claim gold medals in their last two national competitions.
We worked incredibly hard on our Convention Package – the two songs that we will compete with in Bournemouth on the 27th of October – and felt the kind of tingles that make you grin from ear to ear – without even being told to as part of the performance!
When we lost our Katy, over two years ago now, Linda created a beautiful arrangement of one of Katy’s favourite songs, Songbird, and it was our honour to have learnt it and worked on it; performing it in front of Linda was nerve-wracking on so many levels. The fact Linda was able to pick out a number of tuning and timing issues to correct and spend time on meant we could concentrate fully on the craft, before a final run through when we were told to feel the music in our souls. It was a gorgeous gesture from Linda to give us a song to sing that will forever keep Katy’s spirit with us and when we finished our rehearsal at 4pm, the rainbow that appeared outside was another reason to believe that we truly do have an angel watching over us.