Whether we are singing to a small (but always highly appreciative) audience in a local retirement home, or to a large audience in a prestigious venue locally or further afield, we always sing our hearts out and aim to entertain our audience to the best of our ability. To give an idea of our local concerts; in 2018 we sang in various local churches and retirement homes, performed Ariel Ramirez’s famed Misa Criolla with the Tygerberg City Choir to a packed St Georges Cathedral, joined four other choirs in Rotary’s Last Night of the Proms concert in the City Hall under Richard Kock, earned a standing ovation for our annual Summer Celebration Concert in Bishops Chapel, with guest artists Louise Howlett and Albert Combrink, and ended the year by leading the singing for four nights at the Rotary Carols by Candlelight in the Kirstenbosch Gardens, as we have been doing for many years.
Two-to-three day tours into the country, and sometimes further afield, have become very popular with our members. They widen our reach and the nature of our audience, help members to get to know one another better (which is very important, given our wide cultural diversity), and because they are high profile and so enjoyable, help us to attract and retain new members.
Since 2012 we have toured to, and given concerts in, Hermanus and Stilbaai (twice), Worcester, Swellendam, Bredasdorp and Elim, and Ekurhuleni (Gauteng) to join with the CENESTRA Male Choir in concert there. On the programme for 2019 is a tour to the Southern Cape in September to perform with the well-known South Cape Childrens Choir in George and Mossel Bay – two new venues and audiences for us. Follow us there!
In 2012 the Choir, together with the CENESTRA Male Choir from Ekurhuleni, Gauteng, represented the African continent at the international Wales Choir of the World concert in the Royal Festival Hall, London, singing a specially commissioned African work (Africa-South) which had the audience of over 2 000 on its feet.
An award from the National Lottery in 2016 enabled the Choir to increase and diversify its membership and repertoire and, in partnership with CENESTRA, to tour Argentina and Uruguay in July 2017. The tour was an outstanding success both musically and in terms of the spirit of unity which the two choirs conveyed to enthusiastic, capacity audiences wherever we performed.
In recent years, the Choir has been pro-active in organising and running choral workshops in a variety of (often disadvantaged) communities to bring people together through the joy of communal singing and further an understanding and appreciation of cultural diversity among all participants.
Recent such workshops include an all-day workshop, followed by a concert, with six farm school choirs in Grabouw in collaboration with the Rural Arts Network, interactions with local communities during the weekend tour to Bredasdorp and Elim, a Sunday Workshop with the SACS School Choir in Cape Town, and a day of shared learning and singing with the Pollsmoor Prison Choir.
It is now our policy to include workshops into our tours wherever possible, especially where there are local choirs who would benefit from the musical training. These workshops, in all of which the Choir members participate voluntarily, usually end up enriching the participants musically and socially, and are great fun to boot.
As a new initiative, we are now offering singing workshops to corporates to improve social interaction and bonding among their staff, as we have learned that joining in song creates an extraordinary feeling of togetherness and joy between people, irrespective of their background, musical ability or singing experience. These workshops will start with a very simple melody, and build up to more intricate, challenging harmonies in consort with our Choir, led by our Musical Director. Read more and rise to the challenge!.