The Big Sing
Post categories: Jessica Duchen
| 12:09 UK time, Monday, 26 January 2009
Sing in a choir? Love Mendelssohn? Put the weekend of 8-10 May into your diary. As part of the big Radio 3 Mendelssohn weekend, the station is inviting everyone to join in a massed national singsong of 'O for the Wings of a Dove' with or without its parent piece, Hear My Prayer - a musical equivalent, if you like, of making a human chain across the country in tribute to dear old Felix.
When your choir joins in, you will have the chance to be broadcast on ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Radio 3, and you'll be offered posters to download to advertise your performance. If you upload your performance to your choir's website, Radio 3 will provide links to these, and you can send photos of the event in for an online gallery at the Composers 2009 site.
Who better to introduce this mega-sing on air than the delectable Aled Jones? He'll present a special live edition of The Choir in connection with the project on 10 May itself, plus a follow-up edition on 24 May.
'"O for the Wings of a Dove" offers a splendid showcase for the pure voice of a young soprano soloist, boy or girl,' he says. 'Mendelssohn's beautifully evocative setting has direct emotional appeal, as many people remember from 's iconic with the conducted by which has always been one of my "desert island discs"! It will make a wonderful addition to the repertoire of any choir which doesn't already know it.'
Choirs can choose to perform the whole of Mendelssohn's Hear My Prayer or 'O for the Wings of a Dove' alone.
So, what are you waiting for? Get practising, limber up those voices, remember that singing is proven to be good for the health - it gets the oxygen flowing like nothing else. You'll find all the information you need for registration right here on the Mendelssohn home page at /composers.
All together now: O, FOR THE WINGS, FOR THE WINGS...
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