Did You Know ....
The following article by Lucy Elkins (Daily Mail) reads:

'Healthy Hobbies - Singing
The success of the Military Wives' Christmas single has seen a 10% rise in people joining choirs.  It's good news because having singing lessons, being a member of a choir or simply singing daily can have profound benefits on your health.  Studies at Sydney University, published in the Journal of Music Therapy, showed singing helps people cope with chronic pain better.  University of Frankfurt researchers found choir singing lowers stress levels and boosts the immune system.
There's also plenty of evidence that singing raises levels of the feel-good hormones endorphins in a similar way to exercise.  And surveys at Canterbury Christ Church University showed they had improved lung function and breathing, and generally better mood and self-esteem, than non-singers.'

So - what are you waiting for? 

Visit Fascinating Rhythm! 
After the success of our Open Evenings in 2011 (see article below), we are planning more dates for this year - and we'd be delighted if you'd come along to see our MD crack the whip and putting us through our paces.  Watch us battle with choreography as well as singing (at the same time - no safety net!).  Where else can you get an evening's entertainment for £2 entry - including refreshments?  You may even decide to join us! Watch the website for future dates (7th June is the next one).

How Low Can You Go?
We are actively recruiting for women who can sing in the lower register (2nd Alto).  If you'd like to be part of our power-house Bass section or you know of someone who might, please do contact us or come along to one of our rehearsal evenings.  You'll be made very welcome.

Newsletter
If you'd like to receive our sporadic newsletter as a Friend of FR, please send your name and email address to taylin4@hotmail.com.

Junior FR 
We are strong believers in keeping performance art live, and encouraging young people to explore their musical talents.  Our choreographer/Assistant Director, Wendy Howse, has initiated Junior FR who currently have 13+ members aged between 8 and 11.  They meet once a month for an hour at Acton Village Hall.  Three members of the chorus also attend every rehearsal to help.
These youngsters work on everything that FR Senior does - ie posture, breathing, diction, pitch and Singing with Confidence - and are currently learning many of our warm-ups so that they can join in when we have a joint rehearsal.  JFR stole the show at last year’s Winter Celebration concert (huge collective 'aaaaahhh' when they walked on stage), performing Little Saint Nick and We Wish You a Merry Christmas on their own, then singing the Lead part of Jingle Bells, with FR as their backing group!  Their next gig with us is for Proms in the Meadow at Iron Acton on Saturday, 14th July and they are working hard learning two new songs for this.  Contact Wendy (wendyhowse@hotmail.com) if you have a budding Adele or Rumer singing into a hairbrush at home.

                                                    
                    What have we been up to so far this year?
APRIL

FR Goes Street!
On Thursday, 12th April's rehearsal we had a very special guest - Laura Hernandez, the very talented choreographer from Streetenvy dance academy. Streetenvy is a Bristol and Oxford based dance school specialising in street, hip-hop, commercial, reggaeton and batuka styles for adults, teenagers and children.  They are as passionate about dance as Fascinating Rhythm are about singing, with the same aspiration of keeping performance live and encouraging young people to get involved.  They say on their website (www.streetdanceenvy.co.uk) that they 'aim to enhance your strengths in a friendly environment while secretly burning those unwanted calories!'  So, as we're trying to get fit for Convention, we thought we might do a little 'street' - though I don't know if the front row will actually pull off doing the spinning round on their heads bit.....
Streetenvy also work to competition standard.  They are hoping to put on their own show at the end of July to raise funds to help local youngsters and there has been talk - only talk, mind you - of FR joining with them for a street-choreographed number.  Keep your eye on our Events page.  Must be worth coming along just to see our front row going into melt-down.

MARCH

The Marlewood Show
March 23rd and we were putting on our second full show in 2012 - this time with the Dursley Male Voice Choir supporting.  We were delighted to have a full house (my, but it did get warm in there!) and it was really good to see a familiar face or two in the audience from one of our sister choruses.  The styles of barbershop/male voice choirs are very different, and hats off to the DMVC for learning a barbershop arrangement so that we could conclude the performance with a glorious 100-strong mix together of the very aptly named song 'Harmony'. 
We take this opportunity once again to thank everyone who pulled together to make this such a success; without outside help from friends and family who pitch in so willingly, these concerts could not happen.  This particular show was a little more challenging than usual, but appeared seamless while we remained professional, calm and smiling.  Swans gliding effortlessly on the surface, whilst an amount of frantic paddling was going on below.  Aren't we fortunate to be able to sing anywhere with just a pitch-pipe to start us off.  Good job we don't have to lug a piano or a double-bass on the bus to gigs.

Jeevothayam Farm Concert
We were very pleased to perform in the lovely Methodist Church in Midsomer Norton on Saturday, 10th March.  When John Wesley visited the town in September 1767 he noted in his journal that, because of the notoriously bad roads, it was aptly named as it was probably the only time of year it was accessible!  We also encountered some problems with road works, but all were present in the nick of time to get a great welcome from a very responsive audience.  We were supported by 'One Voice' - a scratch quartet from the Great Western Chorus who were kind enough to help us out after one of our in-house quartets was struck down with a dreaded virus.
This 2-hour concert was to help raise funds for Jeevothayam Farm in Murungan, Sri Lanka, which was a self-sufficient centre of agricultural training for young people and also housed a boys' home before being badly affected by the past civil war.  The Methodist Church has an on-going project to bring this farm back into action; their aim is to provide training in agriculture and animal husbandry and to generate profit that will sustain the work of the boys' home (a Western aid agency has recently announced that it will no longer support the work of the boys' home).  Estimated costs to get the farm back up and running is estimated at £8,000.  The extensive list of things to buy include: 15 piglets (c£570), 50 chicks (£150), 8 goats at £25 each, £1,000 to restore fences, £750 to restore the water supply, plus coconut and papaw trees to plant.  We hope our efforts on Saturday helps to buy a piglet or two.

Cotswold Edge Golf Club Dinner
Thursday, 8th March saw us entertaining at the Cotswold Edge Golf Club Ladies Annual Dinner.  It went down a treat, which is a very good thing - particularly for one of our Lead singers who is also a member of the Golf Club and is in the front row!  Pleased to say she didn't put a foot wrong and absolutely performed her socks off.  'Way to Go, Ann!

Liz Garnett coaching
Saturday, 3rd March and another excellent day's (full-speed!) coaching from Liz who sees so clearly what needs to be done to bring a song to life.  Ever ready with a powerful metaphor to bring picture clarity and get the point across, backed up by physical demos, we had a most useful and enjoyable day;  we were even encouraged to look at the goats in the field along the journey....  Then we galloped off home to write down as much as we could remember.  And there was a LOT.

Open Evening
1st of March was our first open evening this year and we were delighted to welcome back ex-Baritone Lara, now singing tenor, plus a couple of potential new members.  A full evening as we were rehearsing for two of the three performances we have for this month, plus trying to knock into shape a song for Coach Liz Garnett to work with the following Saturday.  Good job we had posh biscuits to sustain us.

FEBRUARY

Celebration!
Non-alcoholic champers all round at our rehearsal on 23rd February as our newest member, Bass Joan Josey, brought our numbers up to 50.  A special toast to founder members Ali Jack and Lesley Beswick and a nostalgic rummage through some photographs was a great way to mark the occasion; and we're looking forward to doing it all over again when we get up to 60!

Show at Taunton's Tacchi Morris Arts Centre raised over £1,700!

Saturday, 11th February found us outside our usual area when we put on a show to help raise funds for TAH - the Taunton Association for the Homeless. This organisation provides a high quality service, making a real difference to the plight of homeless men and women in Somerset.  They achieve this by hard work, talent and committment in the face of these difficult times, even though they have had their core funding grant cut by £100,000 over the past two years.
A diverse show, including ladies Gold Medal Quartet winners Havoc! and the men's quartet 4getmenots.  These two quartets are good friends, and it was great to hear them singing a couple of songs together as well as their own excellent spots.  FR also fielded two small groups from the chorus - one of whom sang a beautiful version of Pie Jesu, arranged by our own Alison Jack.
We were so pleased (and relieved) to have a very nearly full house as the weather was bitter.  Lovely audience, very receptive - and very generous too, for not only did they buy tickets to support the event, they also put over £400 in the collecting buckets!  The icing on this particular cake is that Barclays Bank run a scheme which helps support local charities, and they pledged to match £ for £ whatever was raised that evening.
And after all the glamour and glitter of the evening?  All of us scraping quantities of ice off the cars before heading home to Gloucester. And the thankful but sobering thought that we didn't have to find shelter and sleep rough.

Joe Cerutti Coaching

We had a full-on rehearsal on 2nd February when Joe Cerutti came to share his humungous expertise with us for an energy packed two hours of intensive coaching.  He took no prisoners!
Visiting the UK to be main speaker/coach for the BABS Directors College, Joe is MD to the Pride of Baltimore SA Chorus (www.prideofbaltimorechorus.com) and received his Sweet Adelines Master Director designation in 2011.  This Chorus is located in Central Maryland and the 115 members come from five surrounding States, including Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey and Virginia.
Joe has much experience in the barbershop music world including directing the Alexandria Harmonizers men's chorus in Virginia (www.harmonizers.org).  He is both a Master Director and a Judge for the Barbershop Harmony Society.  Check out the website; it's well worth it.
A natural-born teacher, Joe also coaches choruses and quartets throughout the world.  He holds a Masters Degree in choral conducting from Boston University and is a passionate barbershopper.  While in the UK, he found time to coach The Great Western Chorus and the 4Getmenots quartet.  How lucky were Fascinating Rhythm to have this amazing, gifted man come and coach us!


JANUARY

Keep Fit and Have Fun without going to the Gym! was how we advertised our Learn to Sing Workshop in January.  The fun began at 10:00am; six hours later we had 56 delegates packed tightly on the risers singing three spots with Fascinating Rhythm - with not a sheet of music in sight - on a mini-show for friends and families.
Our MD, Jo Dean, took the first session and did 1½ hours of vocal technique and warm-ups.  The rest of the day was break-out sessions and putting it all together, with lunch and a few tweaks in between.  FR was just blown away by the whole-hearted way the delegates engaged with the process and by their very generous performance at the end of the day. It was a great achievement for all of them and they have every right to feel very proud of themselves.  A hard-working, hi-octane day and no mistake.
Best of all? Eight of the delegates decided to join the Chorus and will be auditioning for us during February (see the wardrobe team go into melt-down ...).  What a great day.  Will we run another workshop this year?  You Bet!  Details to follow later in the year.
 
 2011

Open Evenings

We held two very successful Open Evenings in September and November for the public to come and see us working under normal rehearsal conditions.  We had around 25 guests at each session, with potential new members and bookings gained from the event.  We were also delighted to welcome back some of our former members who were really pleased at the opportunity to come back and see (and sing with) us.  Plus it also gave the good people of Rangeworthy a chance to see what goes on in their very well-run village hall on a Thursday evening.

Our Winter Celebration Show

An evening of varied entertainment from Fascinating Rhythm took place on 10th December at the Kings Oak Academy. This was the first time we have used this venue and it was true 'show style' with our own festive additions.
Many thanks must go to Pete Wilson of BBC Radio Gloucester for being our amazing 'MC' for the evening.  We were well supported again by many friends and our families, and 'Junior FR' gave a fantastic debut performance too.
We really enjoyed the evening, and hope our guests had a festive celebration to remember!

Very Exciting Convention News!!

Fascinating Rhythm took part in the LABBS National Convention on Saturday 22nd October 2011 and were absolutely delighted to be placed 7th.  We were also awarded The Millennium Award Trophy for the Most Improved Chorus and also our Musical Director, Jo Dean, received The Cheshire Chord Trophy for the Director effecting the most improvement in their chorus!
We had a fantastic weekend of celebrations. Sincere thanks to all of our supporters and coaches for their continued help and assistance over the past year.

Coaching with Cindy Hansen

On Thursday 13th October we were so very excited to be visited again by the wonderful American coach Cindy Hansen. She worked with us on our Convention package and she so inspired us that the results spoke for themselves. Though it was a hard-working session it is fair to say that it was thoroughly enjoyed by everyone. It was lovely to see our newest members watch the experience and they can hardly wait to be part of the next session when Cindy visits us in 2012.  What a motivational coach!

Coaching Day with Liz Garnett

On Saturday 17th September we again welcomed back the very talented Liz Garnett for a day of music coaching.
We worked in much more detail on our Convention Songs for October. Liz always inspires us to learn more about the music, feeling it and understanding it in different ways. We were exhausted at the end of the day but, as usual, in a happy and positive way.  We look forward to seeing Liz again for more coaching in 2012.

Media Coverage

Fascinating Rhythm has had some great success with media coverage in 2011, including singing on Dr Phil Hammond’s Saturday show, BBC Radio Bristol (when he called us Fantasysing Rhythm!).

Amazing Prelims Result!!

In April LABBS held a prelims qualifying competition in Bristol for the Convention in October. We were delighted to come FIRST in our region with our highest score ever! We were absolutely thrilled as we'd worked so hard for this result. After all the scores had been collated from the other regions, we learned that our performance was good enough for us to be placed 4th nationally overall.


                                                            End