Sang with John Rutter in King's

For the last few years, several of my choir buddies have been part of the Cambridge Summer Music Festival, but it had never fit with my schedule (or with living in Stowmarket). THIS year, however, I arranged my summer around it.

We sang the Faure Requiem with John Rutter. Seriously. John Rutter. It was rather lovely.

The boys, being silly:

We were in King's College Chapel. (Small music geek moment...)

My fellow soprano 2:

The programme:

And then he signed my copy of the Requiem (which he edited). He was SUPER nice and extremely brilliant in a mad-scientist sort of way. I have officially joined the ranks of the RutterNutters.

And now, for your reading pleasure, a list of the highlights of things he said during our rehearsals.

"Got a good mark in French A-Level. Never went there much...only the rich travelled in those days!"

"I like my altos FIREY!"

"Commune with your piano...or your Yamaha keyboard."

"My mum taught me to knit...she must have looked at me and thought, 'Nobody's going to marry him!'" (I know his wife through bell ringing and she's lovely)

"Sag ye NOT!"

"I think that is going to work. I had my doubts the other night!"

"Sound like hovering angels...good luck!"

"To get a good blend, you've all got to agree on pitch."

"[In King's College Chapel] your mistakes linger for 4.7 seconds."

"I sang this as a boy treble...my mum destroyed the tape (she said it was a clear-out)."

"This bit won't look after itself. Think of it as a Red Light Zone!"

"I saw quite a lot of you not breathing...not that you looked dead..."

"I knew that was going to be mushy, just because you looked mushy."

"It was sort of cranking up a celestial lawnmower...a bit."

and finally:

"The concert's at 8. Don't leave town!"