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Choir members please note future events and attendance will be managed via a google calendar invite. In an attempt to streamline and simplify the invite and response process for performances and social events. All future events will be managed via the choirs google calendar and sent as an invite to choir members email addresses. This means all you have to do is check your emails and respond accordingly. Obviously if your details change, then keep admin informed. Managing google calendar events this way means:
If you have any problems, then ask!
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The choir will be holding a social do on Friday 20th July 2018 at Restaurante Los Lucas at 4pm We will be holding an end of season social do which will include a finger buffet for €10 per person. Drinks are to be purchased separately. All choir members plus partners and guests are welcome. So if you are interested complete the form below. We have a few video clips from the recent Paws Patas fundraising concert. Thanks to Darren (the partner of one of our singers) who kindly filmed us at the concert on Fri 25th May 2018 at Mira Flores Ballroom, Los Gallados Camping. The videos catch us in full song. One is an extract from The Rhythm of Life and the other is the full version of This Is The Moment. Both clips along with other snaps and other news clippings can be viewed in our Gallery. If you have any photos of the choir that you would like to send us, simply contact us and we can arrange how to transfer/copy/download the photos. We have a fairly good IT department!
Once again the choir will be taking part in the music festival. We have the honour yet again to open the music festival. We are performing on Friday 1st June 2018 at 20:00 in Iglesia San Francisco, Plaza San Francisco, Albox. We have a selection of songs in English, Italian and Spanish. Hopefully something for everyone.  And can you spot there deliberate (!) mistake on the poster?
The choir once again did their part to successfully raise funds at the recent Walk for Life Concert The choir was delighted to sing at the recent concert in aid of Walk For Life. Audiences for both performances were very appreciative. An estimate of €825 was raised at the two performances, so well done everyone for taking part. It is a nice amount to go toward such a small and hopefully blossoming charity that does such good work. If your charity is wants to hold a concert to raise funds, then simply contact us. You plan the event, advertise it and produce tickets, we can help with poster artwork and then we simply turn up and sing. We do not charge a fee! What could be easier?
Time again, the few have to do the work many could help with! Publicity is easy right? It just happens? Well someone does it, don't they? No, No and Yes is the simple answer. There is probably no right or wrong answer, however there are some tried and tested approaches to publicity that work and sometimes they differ from event, organisation and budget availability. When The Incognito Singers did their first performance in Zurgena we were not cash rich; so in order to keep production costs to a minimum, it was decided to use direct advertising via social media and our website as there is clear evidence that this is the most cost effective approach. Both concerts were sold out and at no advertising cost to The Incognito Singers. Subsequently, and in order to reduce production costs even further, the decision was taken to make a direct approach to local charities and offer our services to help them raise revenue. This effectively passed all production costs, advertising, ticket sales etc to the eventual recipients with The Incognito Singers providing the entertainment free of charge. Historically this has proved very effective for PawsPatas, A.E.C.C. and FACE. Any printing and placement of advertising material is therefore left to the discretion of the producers of the concert. If people feel there is an opportunity to increase effective advertising by placing posters etc., at sites other than those chosen by the producers, they are at liberty to approach them directly or through our publicity coordinator and suggest it. For our most recent performance our publicity coordinator arranged posters to be designed and printed, so that we had control over the consistency and quality of the publicity material. These posters were placed in the usual prominent places and outlets along with tickets for sale. Hopefully these costs can be recovered?  Latest stats - unique visitors The cheaper cost option is if all the 500 plus people who visited our website and Facebook page could share the post or website link, we would be able to share the load and burden of publicity and keep the costs to an absolute minimum. And finally we also have an emailing list, so if anyone wants to join that, fill in our contact us form. Then we will keep you informed of future events when they appear on our website. All this may go someway to dispel the myth that there is no advertising of events!
Our MD will be having a break from rehearsals at some point over the summer, but when? Up to now our MD is definitely not available for rehearsals on 27th July or 3rd August. There is some doubt over availability in August also. He is mindful of our commitment to the Cancer Research Concert in November, as we have a lot of music still to learn and commit to memory - we cannot use copies at the Royal Albert Hall. So there may be some rehearsals in August. Unless you hear any different rehearsals will finish on Friday 20th July and recommence on Friday 7th September. Obviously if you are away or cannot make any rehearsal please inform our MD directly via the choir email address.
The is a dedicated members page for the Royal Albert Hall Trip. Sally (contralto viz the actress) has been working exceptionally hard in the background managing and coordinating all the information and bookings for the Royal Albert Hall trip in November. Yes emails have been flying back and forth and sometimes it is hard to keep track, so spare a thought for Sally. However to make everyone else life a little easier, we have now put together a summary page of all the information you need associated with the trip. See Members > RAH page on our website. The page will be updated with more information as we get to know it. If you have any questions or comments simply add a comment below or email us via the usual email address.
We like to perform music we like. But we also want to perform music you like! Our MD is throwing open an invitation for new music suggestions for the 2019 music season, as we need to get on with the music ordering, arranging or transcribing now, them the pieces are ready for January 2019. We have a good mix of songs from the show, musicals, films, ballads, love songs, folk tunes and a few classical pieces. What songs should we include next? Let us know what your favourite pieces are and if they are available for SATB (soprano, alto, tenor, bass choir) then we will look t including them in our repertoire. We tend to steer clear of sacred music and big works as other choirs have this covered. We like easy listening plus something a bit different. So whatever your suggestion, simply comment below. Thanks in anticipation of your suggestions.
Over the summer months our website will be undergoing some changes. To make the website easier and simpler to navigate, some work will be undertaken to change the layout, information and look of the site. If there are pages you like or don't like, let our web admin know. If you have suggestions of what to include or exclude simply post us a comment below. The aim is to use our website more and make it work for you our choir members and audience alike.
There is a new members page listing forthcoming event programmes and running orders. The page is to enable members to have a one stop place to locate information about an up and coming event. Although an email will have been sent out by our MD, emails tend to get misplaced. So hopefully this new page will save any confusion. Members simply login to our website and select the Programmes page. The page is not available to members of the public as it would spoil the surprise of what we are going to sing at our events. To minimise costs we do not publish concert programmes. Our MD does all the introductions of songs and thanks those involved along including our sponsors.
No this has nothing to do with music but does have something to do with our website! Spare a moment of thought for your poor MD who is also web designer, builder, admin, etc. and has to maintain the website to make your rehearsal life easier. He maintains the 'music practice' page with the up to date music schedule and rehearsal pieces. For those in the know, the dark art of HTML and CSS can be very unforgiving on times, especially when you need to present some information on a website in a table format. Our practice music page has a few tables detailing the music and links to rehearsal tracks etc. Creating the tables in a drag and drop web designer app link Weebly is sort of do-able, but it is not easy and can be very convoluted and complex, so from time to time you simply have to roll your sleeves up and write some HTML / CSS code! That is all well and good until you realise there is a problem and then spend days trying to find it and fix it. It can be frustrating because as any good coder knows you don't write new code each time you simply copy and adapt! So, one table should be the same as another right? Well obviously something went wrong with one of the tables because the table appeared in the wrong location on the website. Web admin got so frustrated he simply rebuilt the page the 'practice' page to try and find the problem, and finally established the problem was in the hand written code associated with one of the tables. The problem was simply a missing slash '/' from the last line of the code. Doh! So if you were ever wondering what your MD 'slash' Web admin does with his time.....
The Phantom comes to Albox. As part of this seasons new music, we are starting rehearsals soon on a medley from Phantom of the Opera. It just goes to show we listen to our audience, as some said they thought the choir would do a medley of Phantom music proud. I hope we do!
Demonstrating their levels of artistic flexibility a production of The Actress by Peter Quilter is soon to be performed at El Teatro Pedro Gilabert. Directed by Roger Dickman, tenor, produced by Ian Jones, baritone and starring Sally Fitzsimmons, contralto, Marie Fletcher Carolan, contralto, Dianne Kilner, soprano and Terry LeGassick, tenor with full supporting cast. Not to be missed  We have a new piece of music to rehearse. Always on the lookout for new music and something a bit different from the other choirs. We have a new piece in our 'practice' pile. It's called 'A Thousand Years' by Christina Perry, but this is a great four part choir arrangement. If you want to get an idea of what the song is about, then check out the YouTube video, however members can log in and download our sheet music and backing tracks to practice before next rehearsal.
The choir has started a new membership scheme for members. To simplify the overall management of subscriptions and membership, the choir now renews membership and fees on an annual basis. Fees are due for the year as at the 1st of March. However to lighten the burden of payment this can be paid in two instalments if required, 1st March and 1st September. The overall annual fee has been cut by half, so where else can you get a night out, some tuition, have a good old sing and a bit of a laugh too for fifty cents a night?
Terry on of our Tenors will be taking part in this year’s Great North Run Not only is he doing this to raise awareness and money for Teenage Cancer Trust but is running the race with his two sons, but as a septuagenarian is not going to give them an easy time and hopes they will be able to keep up with him. I’m sure his target of £400 can easily be achieved and hopefully surpassed. Terry has the backing of the choir both in pride and now in sponsorship via his Just Giving site.  On Saturday 10th March, the Walk For Life team are holding a fund raiser at the Amigos Bowling Arboleas Anyone interested in putting a team together?
The Choir AGM will be held on Friday 9th February 2018 at Hostal Rosaleda following the rehearsal. The meeting is only open to choir members. Please review last years AGM minutes ahead of the meeting. The minutes are in the members Log in / Admin / Meetings / AGM 2017
Friday 2nd February 2018, 8pm at Terraza Lamarlo, behind LIDL in Albox. It is that time of year again when the choir is another year older, but more importantly we need to socialise and celebrate all the hard work put into making the choir what it is. The meal is a sit down meal (similar to a menu de la noche) and is subsidised by the choir therefore is €5 per person. Available to choir members and their guests. The meal consists of:
All other drinks are to be purchased separately. All choir members have been sent an email invite which links to a RSVP form to indicate your attendance and menu selection. Here is to a good night! See you there?
The Incognito Singers have completed another succesful year in 2017 We raised over €3,000 for charities through our performances. Our rehearsals for 2018 recommence on Friday 12th January at 18:00. Check out our Rehearsals page for dates, times and location. The new year and new season will concentrate on the music schedule for Royal Albert Hall. Choir members can log in to the Practice page for sheet music and rehearsal tracks. We have a few vacancies particularly for men and specifically basses. However all potential new members are welcome to come along to a rehearsal and see if we are what you are looking for, We may have to operate a waiting list as we maintain a balance of voices and sections. If your charity would like us to perform a concert to raise funds, get in touch. We would like to say a special thank you to our sponsors for supporting and helping us throughout the year. Happy New Year everyone.
Here is a nice editorial from the FACE team following our recent concert to help raise funds. The Incognito Singers performed two magnificient Autumn Concerts entitled "Songs With Style", at the Teatro Municipal in Zurgena all for the benefit of F.A.C.E. (Fundraising in Arboleas, Caring for Everyone) recently. The 27 strong group of mixed voice singers under the musical guidance of David Murphy, performed for well over an hour and twenty minutes, with a thirty minute break, a superb array of musical numbers ranging through light classical numbers, music from musicals and films such as "The Sound of Music" and "Oklahoma", and modern popular music by Nat King Cole and Whitney Houston, which delighted it's audiences. This is the second in a series of three news items about the choir. David is a new expat to Spain but now more importantly is one of our tenor singers. Here's what he has to say on his experience of joining The Incognito Singers. On moving to Spain in August 2017 I knew that I would need to have a hobby and a way of meeting people. I love singing and always have since childhood so my partner suggested joining a choir. The music for the Albert Hall concert in 2018 is almost complete. It's at 85% Our MD has been busy behind the scenes trying to get all the music complete and posted for singers to start practicing. I know the concert is not until November 2018, but we have to know all the songs from memory! To date we are still waiting for three pieces to be sent to us, as they may be arrangements of William Relton, the musical director and conductor for the event. As we cannot attend the regional rehearsals in the UK, there is a rumour that Mr Relton may visit us sometime in 2018 before the big event - OMG!! So we better start rehearsing! Anyway enjoy the music....
And just exactly what does the Musical Director do anyway.... This is the first in a series of news items focusing in on our musical director, some of our singers and a member of our audience. So we can get a perspective on what The Incognito Singers do and how we are received. Normally the musical directors role is quite simple, he / she just turn up and conduct the choir at rehearsals and concerts. It can't be that hard, it's only waving your arms about! If only, that was all it was!!!! In a choir like ours, our MD also chooses the music, orders the music, creates the backing/rehearsal tracks and stores all the music. So he's a librarian too. The distribution of our music is fairly straight forward as it is all available via our website, so he is the web administrator too. And when new members join and we need to record all their personal details, send emails and keep everyone generally informed, then he acts as secretary as well. Generally he manages to keep out of physical contact with stage-wear and just offers suggestions on what he thinks the choir should look like, but a recent trip to Cartagena with Linda our stage manager, saw the MD helping to chose material for the ladies new scarves. Plus he ended up paying for it and he did all the driving! Surely he doesn't get involved in the finances too? Oh yes he does, up to last year he was treasurer, but thankfully this year he has managed to delegate that role to Natalie (Sop2) to keep the records and Ann (Front of House) to take weekly subscription. So what about publicity, well thankfully he has Peter (Baritone) who has kindly taken on the role of advertising and concert manager, so that is some burden off his shoulders. Peter knows just how interesting and taxing that aspect of the choir can be. All in all, most amateur choirs have an MD like ours and if they are lucky have a few good volunteers to help our run things too. It's all about team work and the love of doing it, after all there is no remuneration.
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Publicity: Peter +34 671 433 363
Conductor: David +34 629 977 822 |