2nd February 2012
Despite some of them being as young as eight, the Manor Singers from Yateley Manor Preparatory School in Hampshire found touring in Paris a real thrill. Their Director of Music, Paul Hemmings says it’s something he’ll definitely do again.
“What an opportunity! The children really enjoyed the whole experience and they performed brilliantly.
Manor Singers only formed last Autumn so,apart from school concerts and an appearance at the Godalming Music Festival and Yateley’s ‘Gig on the Green’, this was our first chance to perform to a big audience.
The tour gave great purpose and focus to our rehearsals. I was delighted at how well the children performed. We sing mainly show tunes like Bohemian Rhapsody and Tuxedo Junction and the larger audiences didn’t faze them at all.
The first concert was at the bandstand in Square Jean XX III, in the shadow of Notre dame Cathedral. There were around 50 to 100 people there and they sang amazingly. A bit nervous before, they were buzzing afterwards; they really enjoyed it.
Our next concert was at Disneyland where we were all impressed with the professionalism of the set up and inspired by the setting. Again, the children were on a real high afterwards and haven’t stopped talking about it since
The good think about touring is that you get to see a little of the country you’re visiting too. In addition to our visit to Disneyland, we went up the Eiffel Tower and on a tour through some of city’s famous landmarks. Being able to see these famous places and experience something of the culture was a big plus.
But the real benefit was how much the children enjoyed it and developed over just four days; many of them changed and became more mature about things.
We’ve made a 50-minute DVD of our tour, which everybody has been very impressed with. Parents in particular have been over the moon at this memento of the trip, while it’s just made the children want to go again even more.
The Yateley manor Preparatory School choir tour was arranged by Club Europe (www.club-europe.co.uk), a specialist school concert tour operator.
Yateley manor is a co-educational Preparatory School in North East Hampshire catering for children from 3 to 13.
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