The Sixteen's Blog

Genesis Sixteen member Eleanor Thompson writes about her experience of the second course held in Manchester this November:

“So once again the 22 members of Genesis Sixteen took the train, bus or (in Lizzie’s case) a plane to gather for Episode 2 in Manchester. First up on the tightly packed agenda was The Sixteen’s concert in the Bridgewater Hall of Handel and Purcell. After negotiating Manchester’s taxi system we all managed to turn up there unscathed and what a lot of hugging and catching up there was! It was both odd and amazing to think that we had all only spent a week together in the summer and most of us had not seen many, if any, people between then and now, and we were able to simply click straight into being S Club Juniors (self-styled title, of course). After a lovely supper and much laughter we were shepherded by Sarah (the new Mrs Genesis Sixteen) into the hall itself to hear Harry holding forth in his infinite wisdom about the concert’s programme. Listening to his views on Handel’s Dixit Dominus and Purcell’s The Indian Queen was fascinating. The concert itself was, as expected, utterly spectacular. Certain members of the male section were in transports of delight over Elin Manahan Thomas, and coupled with the mellifluous and gorgeous tones of Eamonn, Grace, Mark, Ben, Robin Blaze and the Sixteen themselves, the whole concert was a treat.

Saturday morning meant the beginning of Hard Work. Very sadly the Maestro himself couldn’t be there and he was sorely missed, but Eamonn and the sometimes scarily dynamic James Burton more than made up for his absence. From the first minute we were back to the by now familiar cycle of lifting the soft palate, breathing into the shapes of vowels, letting breath flow through the phrases and, a new addition from James, making sure our feet remained lovely at all times. We worked through a huge amount of music – highlights include the enormous Duo Seraphim, Taverner’s very high (for the sops anyway) Mater Christi and Britten’s Ballad of Green Broom, during which we learnt how to roll r’s at great speed. Tim Jones and Julie Cooper were on hand to dispense more wisdom in our individual singing lessons throughout the day. I should also comment on the number of packets of biscuits consumed during breaks. The Jaffa cakes and Hobnobs took quite a beating…

In the evening we were treated to a Chinese in a restaurant not far from the Business School where we were staying. It would be unfair to say that we did not take advantage of this, as at least three quarters of us ended up eating an obscene amount of food. That’s what happens when you unleash 22 hungry, hard-worked singers onto a mouth-watering menu of Chinese delights. We also played the orange game (see photo) and named Fizz’s fish Barry Christophers.

Sunday brought on a fresh wave of genius from James (who took inexplicable joy from Will and Angus’ red socks and Eddie’s red shoes…) and Eamonn. Some of us had actually managed to get to breakfast on time, but others didn’t even make it at all (ahem, Ben…). After the demands of the previous day we each had to work harder at listening and holding our own in the overall sound, but the results were well worth it. At 4.30 there was an informal ‘concert’ for family and friends, which was essentially a sing-through of everything we’d worked on. It went brilliantly and Eamonn and Jamie were very pleased, as were we. Having just got into the groove again, it was also sadly time to head back to our many places of education or employment. After the last chats and goodbyes in the bar of the Royal Northern College of Music, off we all went, some of us more tired than others, but all with a sense of job well done.

Thank you’s must of course be said to Eamonn and James for their superb leadership over the whole weekend, Sarah for her brilliant organisation and making sure we all knew what we were doing and of course for buying biscuits, and Julie and Tim for their invaluable help and advice and giving up their weekends to help us. And from us, goodbye until next time!”

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