Richard is a second tenor and Secretary of the Viva Committee.
I joined Viva in 2013 as a tenor, having been invited to apply by a friend in the Altos, and this enjoyable experience has broadened my choral and chamber music repertoire extensively. I started singing at secondary school in South Croydon as a Treble, which was my first proper introduction to choral music. After my voice broke I was put into the second basses at school, whilst at church they needed me in the first tenors, so this helped to extend my musical range somewhat.
After singing in the Durham University Choral Society for 2 years (300 members, 17 tenors…) I let my choral activity lapse for well over a decade, until moving to the East Midlands. A member of the local Church choir found out that I used to sing, and promptly recruited me for a solo in a Harvest Anthem. Having overcome the nerves I realised that I missed and enjoyed the singing, and joined up when the surrounding villages formed a local choir. Thirty years later this is still going strong and I have become the musical director, which allows me to choose concerts full of pieces I like to hear. I also enjoy the occasional invite to sing with other local choirs to boost their tenor numbers.
Being in Viva stretches you with selections of quite challenging music that is not often sung by other choirs, with multi-part compositions from composers spanning the whole choral era. However much of this music is quite beautiful to hear which spurs us all on to make the performances as high a quality as we can manage. Our audiences are generous in their approval of what we have been able to achieve to date.
During lockdown I took remote singing lessons in order to keep singing, which resulted in me finally getting a Grade 8 musical qualification (to add to those of my wife, daughter and son – I’m no longer the musical dunce). I also took the opportunity to become voluntarily redundant from my career as an Executive IT Architect with IBM in order to spent time with family, travel more on holidays, and pursue my hobbies and interests.
I try to keep fit with a range of sporting activity including cycling, swimming, tennis, running and rambling. Less energetic interests involve playing snooker in the Charnwood Snooker League, bell-ringing (where I am nearly at my aim of ringing 100 quarter peals), occasionally strumming a guitar, and playing and teaching bridge. And singing, of course!
After singing in the Durham University Choral Society for 2 years (300 members, 17 tenors…) I let my choral activity lapse for well over a decade, until moving to the East Midlands. A member of the local Church choir found out that I used to sing, and promptly recruited me for a solo in a Harvest Anthem. Having overcome the nerves I realised that I missed and enjoyed the singing, and joined up when the surrounding villages formed a local choir. Thirty years later this is still going strong and I have become the musical director, which allows me to choose concerts full of pieces I like to hear. I also enjoy the occasional invite to sing with other local choirs to boost their tenor numbers.
Being in Viva stretches you with selections of quite challenging music that is not often sung by other choirs, with multi-part compositions from composers spanning the whole choral era. However much of this music is quite beautiful to hear which spurs us all on to make the performances as high a quality as we can manage. Our audiences are generous in their approval of what we have been able to achieve to date.
During lockdown I took remote singing lessons in order to keep singing, which resulted in me finally getting a Grade 8 musical qualification (to add to those of my wife, daughter and son – I’m no longer the musical dunce). I also took the opportunity to become voluntarily redundant from my career as an Executive IT Architect with IBM in order to spent time with family, travel more on holidays, and pursue my hobbies and interests.
I try to keep fit with a range of sporting activity including cycling, swimming, tennis, running and rambling. Less energetic interests involve playing snooker in the Charnwood Snooker League, bell-ringing (where I am nearly at my aim of ringing 100 quarter peals), occasionally strumming a guitar, and playing and teaching bridge. And singing, of course!