Nottingham’s Royal Concert Hall is offering the once-in-a-lifetime chance for singers of all ages and experience to take their voices into a galaxy far, far away, and sing one of the greatest scores from Star Wars.
In the year that Star Wars Episode 7 is released in UK cinemas, the Hallé – Nottingham Classics’ resident orchestra – has given its 2015 Drivetime Concert an interstellar theme, bringing together an hour of classic film scores and great orchestral music with a space connection. Highlights include Mars: the Bringer for War from Holst’s enduringly popular The Planets, Sibelius’s Pelleas and Melissande (the theme to BBC’s The Sky at Night) and a duo of pieces featured in Stanley Kubrick’s cult movie, 2001: A Space Odyssey, in the form of Richard Strauss’s Also Sprach Zarathustra and Johann Strauss’s The Beautiful Blue Danube.
One of the highlights is sure to be John Williams’s Duel of the Fates, which features in Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace, and for which the Hallé will be joined by the Drivetime Choir. This huge chorus of over 600 people has featured in every Drivetime Concert since 2009 and is open to all, regardless of age or experience.
The standard achieved by the choir in the space of just three rehearsals is nothing short of astonishing. Players in the Hallé have regularly praised the breathtaking quality of the singing, much of which is down to its vocal coach, Angela Kay MBE, who has the knack of being able to take this diverse group of singers and turn it into a well-drilled chorus. John Williams’s thrillingly propulsive score will provide an exciting challenge for the choir, as will Handel’s famous Zadok the Priest, used at every coronation ceremony since George II.
The two choir pieces represent a significant challenge to the conductor, too – Jamie Phillips, the Hallé’s Associate Conductor, will be wielding his baton in 360 degrees, as the choir is so huge that most of its members will be in the stalls behind him.
Neil Bennison, Music Programme Manager for the Royal Concert Hall said, ‘The Drivetime Concert is our big community music event of the year, and the Drivetime Choir is something that makes it absolutely unique. Listening to this inspiring army of have-a-go heroes is probably the thing that gives me the most goosebumps in a season.’
Places are still available in the Drivetime Choir. You can apply online by visiting trch.co.uk/drivetimechoir. Tickets for the Drivetime Concert are £7.50 but choir members get the discounted rate of £5 per ticket. To book tickets, call the box office on 0115 989 5555 or visit trch.co.uk.
