BIG SING Singing their heart out
The Collegium choir composed of the top Christ’s College and St Margaret’s choristers have been chosen as one of the top 24 choirs to take part in the Big Sing national finale in August this year.
Schola Cantorum, representing the top College choristers, has been named as the male choir reserve. Boys from the College choirs, which won awards in the regional Big Sing competition, are delighted that this year all three choirs were recognised. Patrick Manning, who is in Schola Cantorum and Collegium, says everyone was stoked that this year the Chapel Choir won an award. “The choir is so big and has a range of varying musical abilities,’’ he says. “There were about 70 students, which, when
polished and are able to hone their much smaller repertoire,’’ says Patrick. “In contrast, we have such a wide repertoire as we have to sing at so many events and functions.
repertoire of the competition but, on the other, we have far more opportunities for performance and have a much more well-rounded understanding of musicality.
“It’s a bit of a double-edged sword. On one hand we are less familiar with the specific
“Music is big here at College. Take Congers, where you have 600 boys all singing.’’
Regional results:
• Schola Cantorum Winner of Outstanding Boys’ Choir
• Schola Cantorum Winner of Outstanding Performance of a Medieval / Renaissance work • Chapel Choir Winner of Outstanding Performance of a Baroque / Classical work
you think about it, is large for such a small school.’’ Schola was a smaller group than last year when it was made up of Year 13s.
• Collegium Runner up in Outstanding Performance of a Romantic work
“However, we had a piece specially written for us by Mr Sutcliffe and we can all get behind his compositions as we have an investment in it,” says Patrick. “We were all prepared to go hard out for the competition. “The cool thing about choral music at College is that we are unique in our focus on having a functioning Chapel Choir. So many other schools just come together for the Big Sing, whereas we do a whole lot of other things and Big Sing just happens to be one of those,” he says. “However, other schools who focus only on the Big Sing are amazingly
Christ’s College Canterbury
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