Special New Year showcase for Chichester singers in Edes House

Singer Louise Russell is masterminding a special showcase for professional and semi-professional singers and musicians associated with Chichester.

Transcript

00:00Good afternoon, my name is Phil Hewitt, Group Arts, I just wrote Sussex Newspapers. Always

00:06lovely to speak to Louise Russell, and Louise does interesting things musically, and you've

00:10got something very special coming up at Ede's House in Chichester on January the 17th. What

00:17is this thing, Louise?

00:18This is a presentation of a concert to celebrate the restoration of historic Ede's House, and

00:27it is showcasing professional singers and musicians associated with Chichester, featuring

00:32Leslie Jane Rogers, a soprano, Leonard Whiting, a Canadian tenor, Martin Elliott, bass baritone

00:40from Selsey, and Valentina Seferinova, who is a pianist from Bulgaria originally. It

00:48is also featuring backing ensembles and soloists from Emsworth and Selsey choirs.

00:55Fantastic, and what's the thinking behind doing this? I know you like organising things

01:02like this, clearly.

01:05The thinking is that I used to organise events at Ede's House back in the 1990s, late 1990s,

01:17and we did it in conjunction with the students of the university, with community singers,

01:27and they used to select various people, and they used to all come together and do rehearsals

01:32for each month, and then they used to perform, and it became quite a popular event. It's

01:40been quite a gap since we last did that, but Ede's House is going through a restoration

01:49at the moment, so I thought it was a rather good idea, as I saw we were doing a presentation

01:59to celebrate the restoration of historic Ede's House, and talk about its connections maybe

02:08to Christopher Wren.

02:09Fantastic, and this is possibly a one-off, but might not be?

02:15Well at the moment it's a one-off, but we have been encouraged to do it more often if

02:20it is a success.

02:21Fantastic, and tickets are £40 from the Novia month.

02:26They are quite high, but it includes a glass of wine and canopies. The programme is going

02:33to be quite high quality, and it's worth coming to see. It's not a profit-making venture,

02:41it is purely to cover the costs, but we have got some very good singers involved, and from

02:50past experience, when I have put on events, it has been very well popular, and has been

02:56very well supported, you know, it's something I like doing.

03:00Fantastic, well good luck with it, hope it goes brilliantly, and let's chat again before

03:04it happens. Lovely to speak to you again Louise, thank you.

03:07Yeah, thank you.