Members of Unscene Singers performed not once but three times in the run up to Christmas, and singers took the opportunity to accessorize with tinsel, antlers, Christmas jumpers and so on! We were welcomed first of all by staff from Ipswich Museums, who invited us to sing in the hall in Christchurch Mansion, as part of their Christmas celebrations. The hall is a lovely place to sing as it has a great acoustic, and the audience can listen from the gallery above as well as being in the hall itself. After singing, we were treated to tea and mince pies which were laid out on the huge oak table in the Mansion kitchen.
Next, in place of our normal Monday afternoon session, we sang at St Lawrence’s café in Ipswich (run by Realise Futures). This is in a converted church, another great acoustic, and this time our audience included unsuspecting customers eating their Christmas lunch! Many Unscene singers often visit the café before our weekly singing sessions, so it’s a familiar venue and one which we hope to return to.
We rounded off 2022 with a visit to Snape Maltings, singing as part of Carols in the Courtyard (a different choir from across Suffolk sang each afternoon in the week before Christmas, either in the courtyard or, as we did, in the extremely pleasant surroundings of the House & Garden shop to stay out of the rain!).
On each of these occasions we sang a variety of traditional and modern Christmas favourites, as well as learning some newer songs to add in to the mix. And we did end up eating quite a lot of mince pies! All in all a busy but great way to round off the year. And as for feedback, we were more than happy with the quote from a customer at St Lawrence’s: “Don’t they sound amazing”!
Picture below shows the singers in the main hall at Christchurch Mansion, a tall space with a black & white chequered floor and many Christmas trees! The singers are standing in a semi-circle around the keyboard, viewed from the gallery above.
Unscene Suffolk 