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Inspirational and memorable’ choral workshop

Tuesday April 15th 2025

Choral workshop with Dr Barry Rose OBE.

Report by Mrs H Howe

On Saturday April 5, the Connor and Down and Dromore Organ Scholarship Scheme Board of Management hosted a choral workshop with the renowned organist and choral director Dr Barry Rose OBE.

This workshop was open both to current scholars on the Organ Scholarship Scheme and to anyone interested and involved in church music.

Dr Barry Rose OBE led the choral workshop organised by the Connor and Down and Dromore Organ Scholarship Board.

The morning began with a social gathering with Dr Rose over some refreshments kindly provided by some members of St John’s Parish Church, Malone.

At 10.30am sharp we gathered in the church and from then on we hardly noticed the time passing!

Dr Rose introduced us to his thoughts on what singing really is, defining it as ‘public speaking set to different pitches.’ He explained and demonstrated various methods of congregational hymn leading and outlined issues such as playing an introduction and how to navigate pacing between verses.

His insights were fascinating and filled with amusing and memorable anecdotes. We explored the importance and value of the use of facial expression and eye contact to convey a wide variety of tonal colour and expression. There was some gentle humour with some rather interesting questions and answers posed for our consideration.

We moved on to choral training and Emma, one of the current scholars, volunteered to take the podium. Having formed a scratch choir for the purposes of the morning, we were introduced to some of Dr Rose’s typical warm-up exercises such as singing the days of the week up and down a major scale, singing the alphabet in rhythm and then counting afterwards to experiment with breath control.

We then studied two of Dr Rose’s own arrangements of the familiar hymns, The Servant Song and Lord of all Hopefulness. Conducting style was discussed as well as vocal arrangements, with particular reference to the addition of a decorative descant.

For a gentleman in his 90s, Dr Rose is absolutely astonishing – so full of energy and passion for church music, good choral singing and leading a congregation in worship as they sing. His enthusiasm was infectious and we could not believe how quickly the time had flown when the session came to an end. All attendees agreed that it had been a truly inspirational and memorable morning.

Closing date for applications to join the Organ Scholarship scheme is April 23. An application form can be downloaded HERE.

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