history>Concerts in 2019 (and none in 2020 or 2021)
- Sunday 9th June: singing by invitation in the huge St Mary's Parish Church, Haddington again, as part of the St Mary's at 4 series, which is now well established. It brought us an ample and appreciative audience.
This was the first of our "women composers" concerts, with music from the 17th to the 21st century, from Italy, Scotland, Germany, the USA and Ireland.
- Sunday 16th June: a concert in Corstorphine Old Parish Church in support of the Rett Syndrome Research Trust. This year's "women composers" repertoire was chosen to reflect the fact that Rett Syndrome is diagnosed almost exclusively in girls. Our very generous audience donated over £700 to the collection. That all goes to the Research Trust, plus an extra 20% because of GiftAid, and with no deductions for expenses. Thanks too to the Church, which was exceptionally helpful and supportive. We heard afterwards that the Research Trust had received an extraordinarily generous donation from an anonymous member of the audience, who specifically mentioned our event as the trigger for their gift. Our heartfelt thanks to you, whoever you are.
- Sunday 11th August, in St Giles' Cathedral: 45 minutes of song in the St Giles' at Six series. Hundreds were attracted by a free concert with shelter from the persistent rain and refuge from the milling crowds of tourist/festival/fringe visitors. Happily we were able to keep them entertained, and they were lavish in their thanks. This was our "women composers" repertoire, including for the first time two challenging numbers which might have added a frisson of tension and excitement to the audience's experience. What they added to mine is not to be told here.
- Wednesday 21st August in Old St Paul's Church.
- Saturday 12th October in Priestfield Parish Church - singing a set of five numbers as guests in a concert by the admirable Edinburgh Mandolin and Guitar Orchestra who attracted a large and enthusiastic audience.
- Saturday 7th December: our Christmas concert in the amazing and historic Rosslyn Chapel, all seats taken and even the cat demanding to be let in. Music from Poulenc to plygain. Mince pies and wine in the interval. What better way to begin the Christmas season?
- Sunday 8th December, a St Giles' at six concert.
We were not able to sing in public in 2020, nor for many months of 2021. For most of the time, we could not even meet to rehearse together, but we kept the spirit alive by making multi-track
recordings, gathering on Zoom, singing together via Jamulus, and eventually by meeting out of doors to sing in a little copse of woodland. Thanks to the generosity of Priestfield Church,
we were able to start rehearsing again in October 2021, and we prepared Christmas concerts. Venues were booked, tickets were sold, programmes were printed. Then, at the very last moment, the omicron variant broke out and
our concerts had to be cancelled. It was not, in fact, until June 2022 that we were able to give another public performance.