PUPILS from Haberdashers' Monmouth School for Girls had the chance to work with one of the great choral conductors when they travelled to Cambridge for a choral workshop with Sir David Willcocks.
It was a long and tiring day, with rehearsals for much of the morning and all of the afternoon. The wide variety of music included two choruses from Brahms' Requiem, Handel's Zadok the Priest and Let thy hand be strengthened and four operatic choruses.
Tiredness was forgotten for the evening concert in the Cambridge Corn Exchange. The Choir were privileged to be singing under Sir David's baton and had the even rarer experience of singing under his baton in a performance which went wrong. At one point in Purcell's Dido's Lament the orchestra and sopranos came apart and stayed doggedly apart until the end.
Sir David made them do it again and this time they were together, with cheers from the audience. By the time they sang the Polovtsian Dances from Prince Igor choir members felt they could sing all night!